How to Save a Life
by PiePrincess-andthe-FallenAngel
Summary: In a future ruled by Lucifer and plagued by the Croatoan virus, Cas died along with many of his friends; however God decided to intervene one last time and brought him back. The lost angel uses his new, God-given, strength to go back into the past. Maybe this time he could get it right. Slow build Destiel.
1. Chapter 1 - The End (Prologue)

**So this is my newest multichapter destiel fic, I hope you enjoy it. I have about 11 chapters prewritten and plans for the next twenty; I'm really not sure how long this fic will be but it'll definitely be my longest yet. If I had to guess then somewhere between 35 and 40 chapters long. I usually upload one or two new chapters a week but with this fic it'll be every Tuesday night (UK time). But once my exams are out of the way (two down, three to go!) I should have more time to write and so my updates may be more frequent following 20th June. However it is also possible that I won't have much time until mid July because I have my birthday and Comic Con making me busy.**

**I was going to write the whole thing in Castiel's PoV but there were a few parts that I thought up that I really wanted to happen but Cas couldn't be there so it's anyone's PoV but mainly Cas's. The titles of chapters will be the names of the episodes they're based on but not every chapter is based on an episode so some of them will just have the name of a random rock song that I think fit in well with the chapter.**

**The length of the chapters vary depending on which episode I'm working off and how much I can see Cas doing in it.**

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_**Chapter 1 - The End (Prologue)**_

Castiel looked over at his leader that he knew so much and yet so little lately. Was he really telling them to go into there? It was a trap… it had to be. He looked into his eyes and that was all it took; because Dean was lying. It _was_ a trap. And Dean knew it. 'Past-Dean' apparently knew it was a trap too, because seconds later he was pulling their leader off to talk privately.

The only ones who _didn't_ know it was a trap were his friends. He looked at them and considered telling them the truth… but he couldn't. If it was a choice between their lives and killing Lucifer, then they had to do what was best for the world. Cas took a deep breath and made his decision; he wasn't going to jeopardise the mission by speaking out of line. He was a soldier after all; always had been. Their leader walked back a few minutes later by himself and they all frowned. Normally no-one would speak-up, including Cas, but he was going to die today so why hold his tongue?

"Where is he?" he asked, a little worried about Past-Dean. Dean just stared at him and shook his head which infuriated Cas. It was his last minutes on earth and Dean couldn't even answer him one stupid question?!

A few minutes later Dean split off from their group, urging them to go on ahead while he went around the back. This didn't hit any of them as odd, but it broke Cas's heart. He surged forwards nevertheless.

It was a blood bath the moment that they entered through the window. He was the last one down, his friends having been torn apart in front of him. He was injured and fired his gun almost aimlessly in an attempt to take down as many Croats as possible. Hell… if he's going down then he's going down swinging. In the end he got taken out by a knife to the back of the neck. It was a painful yet, thankfully, quick death.

Life was brought back into his body and he gasped for air. Light filled his vision and everything was loud… too loud. So loud that he couldn't distinguish between sounds. He was flooded with senses.

His grace greedily sucked in the power that was being supplied to him and he was left wondering what was happening. Was this his afterlife?

Cas was still an angel, even if he was a powerless one, and angels knew nothing of what their afterlife was… he didn't even know if he had one. And if this _was_ it then it was both brilliant and horrible at the same time. His body wasn't used to feeling so filled with power and it caused him pain.

Then, suddenly, the light dimmed and disappeared. The screeching in his head lessened and his pain numbed. He took in a jagged breath and opened his eyes.

His vision was sharper then it had ever been before. He took in his surrounds and analysed that there was no danger present in less than a second. Chuck was leaning over him and smiling weakly. But there was something different about him… he wasn't human anymore. Cas tensed; ready to fight whatever was possessing his friend. It took Cas a moment for his grace to recognise who was leaning over him. And when he did, his eyes widened in complete shock… Chuck wasn't being possessed at all.

"Father?" he asked, incredulously. Chuck nodded and moved back to allow Cas to get up off the blood-soaked floor.

"Castiel"

"Why?" Cas was slightly surprised by just how much emotion he put into that one word. It was filled with hope, anger, fear and sadness. So much sadness.

"I didn't want _any_ of this" he said, glancing around the room where their friends lay alongside the Croats that God had killed when he entered to revive Castiel.

"Then why didn't you intervene?" Cas growled out; years ago he wouldn't have dared to talk to his father like this… but times had changed, _he'd_ changed. And he found that he didn't actually care anymore… even if he was killed for his outburst. Chuck looked at him sadly.

"I wanted to give my children free will… I still do" Cas turned away from him and shook his head in rage. There was silence for a few moments.

"Why did you save me?"

"Because I have hope that you can fix this"

"That _I _can?" Cas shouted dryly as he spun around to face God. "What about you? This is _your_ world! Not mine"

"But you still care about it… I've restored your powers and then some. You should be able to tell that you're stronger than you've ever been" Cas nodded stiffly. "I've given you more power than any archangel… which is why you can see me now for who I _really_ am"

"And what would you have me do with it?"

"Whatever you wanted" They stared at each other for a moment until Cas looked away. "I'm tired of this war Cas… I just want everything to be over. I _wont_ intervene and tell you or anyone else what to do. I wont take away what little free will you have… this is the most I can do to help"

"I need to talk to Dean"

"He's out back" Chuck said sadly. Cas eyes widened at the tone of his voice and he wasted no time flying towards his former lover.

"No!" He shouted as he saw the broken remains on the ground. Cas immediately dropped to his knees and pulled the body into his arms. This couldn't be happening… Dean was their leader… he was supposed to be their saviour. Cas's chest burned with grief as he looked at the empty vessel of the man he loved. "No" he whispered as tears spilled from his eyes. Chuck slowly walked up to him and placed a comforting hand on the angels shoulder.

"You have the power to bring him back" he said softly and Castiel stared up at him with hope. "But we both know that he's not the same man that you fell in love with" Cas knew that God was right. Him and Dean had spent a lot of time working with each other after Sam had broken the final seal and the brothers had gone their separate ways. They'd become very close and after a couple of months they'd had sex. Dean had freaked out afterwards and insisted that it shouldn't have happened. They went on as normal for a week before giving into the desire to copulate again… and after that it had turned into a relationship of sorts. They had been somewhat happy for several months before Sam had said yes in Detroit and the apocalypse had begun. That was when Dean had become withdrawn and cold. He blamed their relationship on him not being able to stop the devil and eventually they broke up. Dean became their leader, he was cold and brash and void of any emotion other than anger; and Cas had buried his pain in women and drugs.

"It doesn't matter… he's still Dean and I _need_ him" Cas placed his palm on the man's face then stopped as a though occurred to him. "The other Dean… where is he?" He asked in a panic when he realised that the man could have been captured or injured… maybe even killed.

"He's safe. Zacharia took him back to his time" Cas nodded.

"So that's why he disappeared" Chuck shook his head and told him what had happened. Cas looked down at the man in his arms and removed his hand from his face. "You said that I could do whatever I wanted… Is that true?"

"Yes"

"What if I wanted to go back in time? Would I be able to change how things played out?" Chuck nodded.

"In theory, yes"

"What does that mean?"

"You are more than powerful enough to be able to bend time to your will… but it needs to be slowly altered by small important events… if you do something too drastic then time will correct itself and whatever you did will be undone." Cas nodded, it was a bit confusing but he understood.

"I need some time by myself" he said, knowing how stupid that statement was since Chuck was God and was omniscient. Regardless, Chuck stepped back and disappeared out of sight. Cas took a moment to think over his plan, then he picked Dean into his arms, got up from the dirt and flew towards their camp. He didn't go out into the open where anyone could see him, instead he went straight to the graveyard out back where all their fallen comrades were buried… including Bobby.

Cas lay his former lover onto the ground and, with a flick of his wrist, created a six foot hole. He lowered the body into it and filled it in with the dirt. He silently grieved Dean's death before he summoned his 'angel mojo' and retreated into the past.


	2. Chapter 2 - All Hell Breaks Loose

**I hope everyone liked the first chapter, this is one of my lesser favourite chapters because I found some of the interactions, especially at the beginning, a bit awkward. But I think the chapters get better as they go on so please keep with me :) I was supposed to post this yesterday but I had an exam today which meant I was concentration so hard on revising yesterday that I just forgot all about posting. I only actually remembered around midnight as I'd just gotten into bed and turned the light off for an early night sleep, so I couldn't be bothered to turn everything back on in order to post.**

**Also this Cas is sort of a mix between sassy, 2014 Cas and regular, angel Cas. It'll make more sense as to why in this chapter. **

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_**Chapter 2 - All Hell Breaks Loose**_

It took Cas a while to be able to decide exactly where he could appear. He contemplated showing up at the very beginning, back when Dean was a child, but he didn't know much of those times other than what Dean himself had told him. Which meant there was too large a chance that things would go wrong. So instead he decided to show up at the time of the deal. He knew the exact day; May 17th 2008.

But he had something that he needed to do before hand; so he instead went to the 16th. Cas flew straight to heaven once he'd arrived and waited. There was someone he needed to have a conversation with and where better to wait for him then his favoured heaven; the eternal Tuesday afternoon of an autistic man who drowned in a bathtub in 1953. It didn't take long for the angel Cas was waiting for to sense his presence and fly directly towards him. Cas turned and saw his true form in from of him.

"I… I don't understand?" 2008 Castiel said and he smiled. "When are you from?"

"2014"

"It's forbidden to change the past"

"True… but that's not important right now"

"Of course it is" the celestial being came closer and frowned. "You're more powerful… how?"

"I'll show you" he said and the celestial Castiel nodded and came closer. Cas lifted his hand and touched it against Castiel's head. He then pushed his memories into his past self. After a moment they broke apart. "I wont be going back to my own time"

"It's unwise for there to be two of us in one time for too long…" he said slowly, "which is why you wish to merge into one"

"It'll be safer that way. Neither of us will be exactly who we were before, but we won't be dead"

"Okay" Castiel said after only a slight hesitation. They both reached out with their grace's and mixed them together. It took several minutes and the process was slightly painful but Cas found that he was extremely thankful that he had made his wards strong enough for no other angel to sense him. Because half of his garrison would have come running if they had felt that.

Still, he didn't want to risk getting seen, so he fled and went towards Dean Winchester. He watched silently as Dean sat beside Sam's body and grieved. He reached out with his grace and listened to his friend's inner thoughts; he waited until he knew that Dean was about to get up and leave for a crossroad at any minute before he showed up.

"Hello Dean" he said as he materialised and Dean flinched and spun around in shock.

"Who are you?"

"My name is… unimportant. I'm here to talk to you about your deal"

"I haven't _made_ a deal"

"Not yet"

"So what? You want to make a deal?" Cas nodded and stepped forwards. "My soul plus ten years and you bring Sam back"

"Not exactly" he said and Dean waited for him to clarify, "one year"

"I'm not taking that" Dean scoffed.

"It's the same deal you'll get at any crossroads" he said as he walked closer until he was standing at the other side of Sam's body. "_Except_ they would add in a sub-clause that said that if you tried to break the deal then Sam would drop dead again… I'm not going to add it in" Dean stared at him for a moment.

"What are you? 'Cause you're not a demon"

"And how would you know that?" Cas asked and Dean looked pointedly upwards, Cas followed his gaze. There was a devils trap painted on the ceiling and he'd just walked right through it. He muttered a curse and looked back at Dean as he thought through his options. He could tell him the truth, that he was an angel… but in order to keep time from correcting itself, things needed to happen as they normally would have before; which meant that Dean needed to think he would die and go to hell… Obviously he wasn't going to, but Cas couldn't risk telling him that. He sighed and racked his brain for anything he could say when he thought of Gabriel…

"I'm a trickster" He said which made Dean frown and stand up.

"And why would you want my soul?"

"Oh I don't" Cas said as he thought up a new story to tell his friend, "that's why I took away that clause. I just find it fun to mess with demons." Dean looked at him with confusion, "you see, souls are power. The brighter they shine, the more powerful they are… and as you can probably guess, they don't get very many bright shining good hearted souls in the pit. But you, you're… righteous" Dean scoffed at that.

"Okay, so you want me to be able to get out of the deal? So why make it in the first place?"

"Well, I _could_ just bring Sam back without making one… but without a contract they'll never find out that you wanted to make a deal in the first place… so it wont be as much fun" Dean looked down at his brother and silence filled the air as he thought over the decision.

"If I made a demon deal, my soul goes to hell. What happens if I make a deal with a trickster?"

"Whatever I want to happen" Dean looked at him with a fearful expression as he thought over what a trickster would do with his soul and Cas laughed dryly. "I have no use for your soul Dean. True they hold power, but I have enough of that. I'm not greedy, I don't need more… so I suppose I will probably send it to hell"

"Then what's the point of this? If you're just going to send my soul to hell anyway?"

"First of all, they won't know you're going to hell until you show up there. And second of all, you'll have a whole year to weasel your way out of the deal along with my guarantee that nothing will happen to you or Sam if you try"

"How do I know that you're not trying to screw me over?"

"Because…"Cas drew in a long breath through his nose as he thought and after a few seconds shook his head "neh, I've got nothing." Dean looked over him with suspicion and so Cas just shrugged. "Fine, go to the crossroads and try to get a better deal out of them... whatever they give you I'll match. There's no time limit… I'll wait" Cas materialised a chair and sat down in it next to Sam.

"I'm not leaving you here with my bother. You're coming with" Cas tilted his head and frowned.

"What do you _really_ think I'd do? I'm not a necrophiliac, Dean. And even if I was, Sam isn't exactly my type" Cas said with a small amount of venom in his words and pointedly ran his eyes up and down Dean's body. He smirked at how uncomfortable it made the man. Their eyes met and Cas winked. Dean froze in place with barely masked fear in his eyes and Cas laughed curtly. He realised that he was probably enjoying Dean's discomfort a little too much and that maybe he wasn't as okay with how his Dean had been acting in 2014 as he'd made himself believe. The angel pushed those thoughts out of his mind and stood up, "lets go then" Dean swallowed and nodded. They walked together to his car and drove in silence until they got to the crossroads.

Dean looked over at Cas and got out the car, he went around to the boot and began to pull out the items he needed to summon the demon. Cas flew out of the car and stood behind Dean, watching him lazily and maybe enjoying the sight of him bent over in the boot a little bit. Dean turned around and jumped at seeing Cas behind him, having not heard him.

"_Jeez_" he said and took a calming breath, "make a noise or something" Cas chuckled a little, reminiscing.

"I think it would be best if you pretended I wasn't here… I'm going to prevent the demon from seeing me in case my presence here makes her… unwilling" Dean just nodded, not really caring.

_**(Dean's Point of View)**_

Dean walked to the crossroad and quickly buried the box, when he turned around to look at the Trickster he saw that he was leaning up against the front of the Impala, with his arms crossed. He kept facing him as he waited, not wanting to let him out of his sight for too long, a few seconds passed and he was getting impatient. He checked over his shoulders to look for the demon

"Oh come on already…" he whispered and then began to shout into the night, "Show your face you _bitch_!"

"Easy sugar… you'll wake the neighbours" said a woman's sickly voice from behind him, he turned to look. She began to ramble on about him, but he wasn't really listening… his mind too full.

"I should send you straight back to hell" he grumbled.

"Oh you should. But you won't." The demon walked around him and when he turned back around he could see the impala and the Trickster right behind her. "And I know why"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, following in Daddy's footsteps, you want to make a deal. Little Sammy back from the dead and let me guess, you're offering up your own soul"

"There are plenty of others out there that would love to get their hands on it" he looked at the Trickster who was looking pretty bored. "And it's all your if you can give me Sam back and ten years" his eyes met the demons again. "_ten years_. And then you come for me"

"You must be joking" his eyes flickered back to the Trickster who had moved from leaning against the hood to lying on it, head back and looking up at the sky. He hated seeing his baby being abused like that but couldn't exactly do anything at this moment.

"It's the same deal you give everybody else" he said sadly, starting to realise that maybe the demi-God was right.

"You're not everybody else" she stalked forwards and whispered in his ear, "why would I want to give you anything" Dean was looking down and thinking of anything that he could do that would make the deal last for longer than a year. "Keep your guttered soul, it's too tarnished anyway" Dean frowned as he thought about what the Trickster had said about his soul being 'bright' and 'righteous'. He hadn't believed that he could be described that way, but he even _he_ wouldn't call it guttered or tarnished. Dean already had decided he was going totake the Trickster's contract, but he needed more than a year in case he couldn't break it in time.

"Nine years"

"No" she said and stepped back.

"Eight"

"You keep going, I'll keep saying no"

"Okay, five years. Five years and my bill comes due. That's my last offer, five years or no deal" She walked closer to him and moved her mouth near his, he pulled away slightly.

"Then no deal"

"Fine"

"Fine" she moved away and walked off, "make sure you bury Sam before he starts stinking up the joint" he stood still and looked at the demi-God who officially looked like he had fallen asleep on the hood of his car. He heard the sounds of the demon's footsteps as she walked away and after a moment they began to walk back to him. "Look, I shouldn't be doing this, I could get in a lot of trouble" said the demon and Dean frowned and turned to look at her. "But what can I say I've got a blind spot for you Dean. You're like a puppy, just too fun to play with... I'll do it." Dean stayed silent, he didn't want to make this deal. "I will bring your brother back. And because I'm such a saint I'll give you _one year_ and one year only. But here's the thing; if you try to welch and weasel your way out then the deal is _off_. Sam drops dead, he's back to rotten meat in no time" Dean shook his head and pulled away.

"I'm not doing that"

"It's a better deal then your Dad ever got and it's the only one you're getting" the Trickster suddenly appeared next to the demon and she flinch away with wide eyes. He lifted one finger to his lips and shushed, she opened her mouth to speak but her voice wouldn't work.

"You really do like the sound of this girl's voice don't you" he said to the demon who looked at him with fear in her eyes. "It takes me paralysing you're tongue to stop it flapping" Cas turned back to Dean, "can I kill her now? Or are you still trying to do the impossible?" He asked Dean, who shrugged and walked away.

"Whatever" he didn't see what happened next but there was a sudden bright white light which made Dean squint even though he was looking the other way. When he turned around the Trickster wasn't there and the body of the demon was lying on the floor with its eyes burnt out and smoking. He turned around looking for the Demi-God and spotted him sitting in the passenger seat of his baby, he let out a sigh of relief and sat in the driver seat.

_**(Castiel's Point of View)**_

"Don't blame yourself for not getting a better deal. Once Sam died, all crossroads demons were told that if you came knocking then they could _only _give you that deal"

"You could have just told me that in the first place"

"And you would have _believed_ me" Cas said sarcastically as he looked Dean in the eyes. "You ready to deal now?"

"The same deal as you mentioned before" Dean asked "my soul, one year, and we're aloud to try and break it?" Cas nodded "then yes." Before Cas could react Dean grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled their lips together. He watched as Dean slammed his eyes closed and tried to think of anything other than the fact he was kissing a guy and it made Cas momentarily sad, but he decided to make the most of this opportunity. He knew exactly what Dean liked and so he put that to his advantage. He slid closer on the seat and their mouths moved in synchronicity for a few seconds before he pushed Dean's lips apart with his own and licked at them. They were just as rough and chapped as he remembered. He delved inside the mouth and brushed Dean's tongue with his own; Cas moved to straddle Dean's lap and ran his hand up into the man's hair, pulling it down to tilt his head and allow him better access.

He brushed his tongue along Dean's and then licked at his cheeks. Dean began to move his tongue then, pushing it against Cas's in a fight for dominance. But Cas just continued to taste Dean, working his way slowly up to the roof of his mouth. He moved his tongue in a circular motion several times then lowered it to dance with Dean's and moved it back up to repeat the action. Dean moaned softly at the sensations it caused. Cas could sense the slight arousal that his kiss was causing in the man below him and he had to fight the urge to lower his hand to Dean's crotch and stroke, encouraging him to become hard… but that's not why he was here. He removed his tongue from Dean's mouth, licking at his lips as he went. Cas watched and smirked as the man slowly opened his eyes and stared at him in stunned silence. Dean cleared his throat to speak, but Cas just winked and flew away. He hadn't actually been planning on sealing the deal with a kiss, but he wasn't going to complain.

He was invisible when he arrived at the house Sam's body was lying in; he placed his hand on top of Sam's head and used his grace to heal him and summon his soul. Sam eyes popped open as he gasped for air.

Cas watched as Sam woke up, he watched as he inspected the wound on his back. And he watched as Dean rushed into the house to find Sam alive. Dean sighed in relief and hugged his brother tightly. Dean didn't tell Sam about the deal he'd made and Cas frowned, '_how was he expecting to be able to get out of it without help_' but then he realised that he was just waiting for the right moment. He sat in the back of the impala as the boys drove to Bobby's house and stood in the back yard with Dean as he got yelled at by his surrogate father.

"You stupid ass, what did you do? _What did you do_?!" Dean kept quiet "you made a deal, for Sam didn't you? How long did they give ya?"

"Bobby…"

"_How long?!_"

"One year"

"Damn it, Dean"

"But, it wasn't a demon" Bobby frowned and waited for him to continue, "he showed up and offered a deal and walked straight through that devils trap on the ceiling"

"Please tell me you didn't go making a deal blind to what you're up against"

"He said he was a Trickster"

"He said? God damn it boy, I could throttle you!" Bobby said as he grabbed onto Dean's jacket and if Cas hadn't known Bobby then he would have been throwing him off Dean, but before Bobby died he'd become like family to Cas. In fact, it felt really good to see him again.

"And send me downstairs ahead of schedule?" Bobby dropped Dean's jacket after a moments pause.

"Would you even go to hell?"

"Yeah, that is if I can't find a way out of this…" Cas zoned out then when he heard someone approaching. He flew towards the intruder, still invisible, but soon realised he had nothing to worry about when he spotted Ellen. He watched as she climbed over the back gate, checked that no-one was around and started walking towards the house. After a moment he heard Dean and Bobby abruptly stop talking as they heard her approaching.

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Castiel had to physically stop himself from stepping in to help when the boy, Jake, forced Ellen's gun to her head. He did however use his grace to keep the gun from being able to go off. He wanted to stop the gate from opening, but if it didn't open then the events of the next year would be too different; not to mention that John Winchester would stay in hell. He may have been able to last all that time without breaking the first seal, but who knows how much longer he could keep that up… it wouldn't be forever.

But then Azazel showed up.

He sent Dean flying through the air, cracking his skull on a headstone as he went. Cas was breathing heavily with anger and the effort it took to keep himself from appearing and smiting the demon. The yellow eyed demon pinned Sam to a tree when he came to help, he then trapped Dean against the headstone and Cas couldn't help but roll his eyes at the brothers.

Azazel talked to Dean for a minute and then stood up, he gripped the colt and held it up to Dean's head and Cas couldn't stop himself any longer. He appeared next to Sam (but just far enough back that he couldn't be seen) and he pushed his grace at the eldest Winchester, freeing him from the demon's powers. Dean realised and scrambled away from Azazel just as John Winchester showed up. Dean looked up at his Father in astonishment and then caught sight of Cas behind him.

Castiel noticed and sighed, he used his grace to move the colt from the dirt and into Dean's hand. Dean looked down at the gun and the angel used that moment to turn himself invisible. A minute later and Dean emptied the colt into Azazel's chest. The body fell to the ground.

Cas supplied strength to Bobby and Ellen to help them close the devils gate and watched as the Winchester's saw their father one last time. And then he left.


	3. Chapter 3 - Bad Day at Black Rock

**This chapter I don't think is as good as some of the others, so I apologise. Also I realised around about the time that I was writing this chapter that I wasn't actually liking this 'following canon' as much as I thought I would (it doesn't give enough freedom in my writing) and so even though it carries on for a good few chapters, I managed to cut it down dramatically to get to the good stuff sooner. **

**I got a review for my last chapter pointing out that 2014 Cas was a much more dominant personality of the two and I just want to say that is true and will continue to be true for the entire fic. But, it does start to mix more in this chapter and onwards as he becomes less bitter and unable to keep up much of a façade. So yeah Cas is mainly putting on the sassyness but occasionally he drops it by accident and his other self shines through a bit.**

**Please leave a review because I'd love to hear what you have to say.**

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**_Chapter 3 - Bad Day at Black Rock_**

Cas realised that it was way too easy to intervene when he was spending time watching over the Winchesters. And so, when he left after Azazel died, he stayed away for several weeks. He'd been lucky that he hadn't done anything too drastic when he'd been in the cemetery, that would force time to correct itself.

At first he wasn't sure what to do when he wasn't near the Winchesters since his only mission now was to protect them. But after a little thought he decided to add additional wardings to himself. He had a natural warding that would conceal his presence if he wished to not be seen, but any demon would instantly recognise him as an angel. So after he spent the first week manifesting a safe house and creating sensors that would alert him to monsters within a twenty, ten and five mile radius of the place, he started upgrading them. It took him two days to strengthen his wards. Once he'd finished he created sensors to give to the Winchesters. The sensors weren't physical, they were spiritual; so once he'd made them and went to the brothers, he was able to place it on their souls while they were sleeping and they were none the wiser about it.

He took a moment to look through the papers that littered the table and nodded happily when he saw it was all about how to break a deal. He left soon after and spent the following two weeks meditating, something that he had learnt to do while he was powerless that had stuck with him. His grace occasionally got alerted to the demons or monsters near the brothers but ignored it because of the low numbers. At one point he sensed a minimum of ten monsters in the same town as Dean and Sam and broke his trance, about to fly towards them when he read deeper. The monsters were changelings. He sighed and went back to meditating; changelings never actually attacked anyone unless they thought the person was going to take them away from the Mother they were currently feeding off. There was only actually one monster in the town that would attack them.

Even still, he found it hard to relax until he sensed the changelings' deaths.

The next time he sensed anything of real importance, it was a curse. Cas opened his eyes and immediately flew towards Sam Winchester. Dean and Sam were sitting in a restaurant. He landed in the seat next to Dean as both Winchester's were leaning forwards and faced the other way to watch a waitress walk away.

"Dude. If you were _ever _gonna get lucky" Dean said to his brother and Sam half turned to him before noticing Castiel. Both of the brothers jumped and pulled out their guns, holding them under the table towards the angel.

"Who the hell are you?" Sam asked and Cas looked pointedly at Dean who sighed and answered.

"It's the Trickster I made the deal with"

"Well what the hell is he doing here?" Sam asked and Dean shrugged and looked at Cas suspiciously, neither one of them had put their weapon away. Cas looked between both men and frowned at their ease.

"You _do_ know that Sam is cursed don't you?"

"What about it?" Dean replied snidely.

"You don't seem very worried…" the exact second that Cas spoke a waiter carrying a tray walked past and slipped, sending the food crashing all over Sam, who jumped back, knocked his coffee all over the table and nearly fell off his chair. He dropped the gun that he was holding and it would have fired if Cas hadn't used his grace to stop it.

"How was _that_ good?" Dean asked and Sam pushed his hand into his jacket pocket, revealing that it was empty. "Son of a bitch! Was that you?" Dean asked Cas, who frowned and shook his head.

"It's the curse…"

"You didn't take the foot?" Dean asked and Cas squinted at the eldest Winchester in confusion. There was a time, only a few years ago, where everything Dean said would have pulled the same reaction from Cas, but it had been a long time since then and Cas had gotten fairly knowledgeable on the majority of Dean's pop culture preferences… it felt strange to be out of the loop once more. Dean looked at Cas for a second longer, shook his head and ran for the door, Sam followed after his brother and Cas flew to sit in the back seat of the Impala. He watched Sam and Dean exit the building and look around before running towards the car. Sam tripped and fell on his way and Dean stopped to help him up. "Wow. You suck" Dean said, "so what now you're luck turns bad?"

"I guess"

"I wonder how bad" Dean got in his beloved car and turned around in his seat to face Cas. "Why are you here?" The angel paused for a millisecond as he thought over his options and decided it was easier to keep up this façade of not caring.

"Curses are entertaining" he replied with a smirk.

"Yeah, you're gonna leave now"

"Oh don't be like that… I can be of some assistance. Like I can track down who ever stole the '_foot_'. That's if you don't mind me laughing whenever Sammy here makes a _boo boo_" Cas said and Sam, who had just got in the car turned a bitch face on him. But he was grazed and covered in food so it didn't quiet have the desired effect.

"No. I'm not letting you anywhere near my brother. So you're gonna leave or I'm gonna find something sharp and pointy to shove through your chest" Dean said with a scowl and Cas lifted his hands in surrender before turning himself invisible.

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Cas had to say that, even though he'd been lying to Dean about why he came to them, seeing Sam trip over every two seconds was fairly amusing. He'd stayed invisible and listened into their conversations enough to find out that Sam's curse was at the fault of a rabbits foot. He decided that he'd need to increase his wardings on the brothers since he hadn't been able to pick it up when it had been working in their favour. Dean dropped Sam off at a motel and, even though he wanted to go with eldest hunter to search for the rabbits foot, he decided that he'd be more useful staying with Sam to look after him.

Cas spent about two hours sitting and watching Sam do absolutely nothing. He sighed and wondered if he should have followed Dean instead. He wasn't really paying too much attention to what was happening in the room and only broke out of his daydream when he saw Sam get out of the chair. Sam walked slowly across the room and then quickly used one of the quilts to put out a fire that the angel hadn't even noticed.

Cas was leaning against a wall on the other side of the room when Sam spontaneous caught fire himself. He surged towards the human but Sam had already knocked himself out. Cas looked down at the youngest Winchester and, after determining that he wasn't injured, chuckled lightly at the man's predicament, but then two men entered the motel room.

Castiel's instinct reaction was to incapacitate the two men, but he didn't. He had to know what they wanted first. And so he stayed alert and listened to them as they tied Sam Winchester up on a chair.

"Oh he's awake" said one of the men, Creedy his name was.

"Back with us aye?" Said the other one, Kubrick.

"We didn't even have to touch you. You just went all _spastic_ and knocked yourself out… it was like watching Jerry Louis ride a stack o' chairs"

"Who are you?" Sam asked, "What do you wa-" Kubrick snapped his fingers to interrupt Sam and Cas frowned; the guy seemed to be an asshole with a bit of a superiority complex.

"I used to think your friend Gordon sent me…"

"Gordon? Oh come on…"

"Yeah. Because he asked me to track you down and put a bullet in your brain" at that Cas stood a little closer to his friend; he wasn't going to let them hurt Sam Winchester.

"Great, that sounds like him"

"But… as it turns out... I'm on a mission from God" Kubrick raised his hand towards Sam and Cas grabbed hold of it before he could touch his friend. "What the-". The angel turned himself visible and brought his fist down on Kubrick's face, effectively knocking him out. Creedy quickly took out his gun and aimed it but Castiel picked him up and flung him against the wall before he could fire. Cas sighed and turned around to face Sam. He easily broke the bonds holding the Winchester to the chair.

"Errr, thanks… Not that I'm not grateful and everything, but why are you helping?" Sam asked after a moment of staring wide-eyed in complete silence and Cas looked at him for a moment, but he couldn't think of an excuse so he settled for just turning himself back invisible.

**_(Sam's Point of View)_**

When Dean had got back to the motel and found the two hunters unconscious on the floor Sam hadn't told him what happened. There hadn't been enough time and if he was being honest, he wouldn't have known what to say anyway. It was all really confusing. But now they were on their way back from the cemetery after destroying the rabbits foot.

"They were working for Gordon" Sam said.

"Huh?"

"The two hunters"

"Well that's just great… how'd you beat 'em up?"

"I… didn't" Sam answered and Dean shot a glance at his brother.

"Well they didn't knock _themselves_ out… especially with your luck"

"It was the Trickster" Sam said quietly and Dean hit his hand against the steering wheel in frustration. "Dean, look I think we should look for other ways of ending the contract"

"Why because the monster that holds it decided to play nice?"

"Just listen okay? He saved my life"

"We don't know that. They wouldn't have killed you"

"They said they were gonna put a bullet in my brain, Dean. You can't get much more dead than that" Sam shot his brother a bitch face, daring him to speak up and interrupt him again. "But anyway, even if the Trickster isn't on our side and he's just acting or lying, well what makes us so sure he's not lying about being the one to hold your contract? Killing him would just be pointless and a waste of time"

"Damn it Sam. You're too easily trusting you know that? I mean first there's Ruby and now this Trickster?"

"She said she can help y- you know what? No. I'm not getting into this again"

"And I'm not going to trust monsters!" Both the boys went quiet and Cas, who was sitting invisibly in the back seat, frowned at the knowledge that they were looking at killing him as a way to end the contract.


	4. Chapter 4 - Red Sky in the Morning

**It feels too weird only posting once a week and so, since my last exam is tomorrow and I'll have more free time to do my writing again, I decided to go back to posting just whenever I feel like it. It'll probably be around two, maybe three, chapters a week.**

**If you get a chance then please leave a review, I want to know what you guys think or any suggestions for how to improve.**

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**_Chapter 4: Red Sky in the Morning_**

Cas was finding it more and more boring staying away from the Winchesters for any given period of time, so occasionally he decided to just drop in for a few hours. Today was one of those days; he flew towards Dean but sensed a woman in the house he was squatting in. Sam wasn't there. Both Dean and the woman were in separate rooms and so he flew to the room she was in. She was pretty with lightly tanned skin and brown hair. She was wearing a dress that was way too expensive for her to be in a house as rundown as this one.

"What is taking so long?" The woman shouted as she looked up the stairs and leant against a table, "Sam's already half way there… with his _date_"

"I'm so not okay with his," came Dean's voice from upstairs.

"What are you, a woman? Come down already" Cas turned from looking at the woman to the stairs as he heard movement towards them. His eyes widened at Dean's appearance. It seemed that Dean had been holding out on him, they'd spent a lot of time together over the past few years, but he'd never seen Dean looking like this. He was dressed in a well fitting tux that highlighted all of his best features and hugged his muscles. The entire outfit was tight in all the right places and a thrum of arousal heated in the angel's veins. Cas stared at him with a slack jaw as his eyes ran up and down the man in front of him and his mouth went completely dry with _want_. He could feel his body respond to Dean, his heart beat and breathing quickened and legs began to feel weak; not to mention the tingle of desire that was steadily creeping down his body. Dean walked to the bottom step and looked right past him and at the woman which caused a pang of jealousy.

"Alright, get it out. I look ridiculous"

"Not exactly the word I would use"

"What?"

"You know when this is over, we should really have angry sex"

"I'd be up for that too…" Cas muttered to himself as his eyes raked up and down Dean's body one more time, of course neither of them could hear him. Dean looked speechless for a moment as he shifted uncertainly. He crossed his arms and looked offended.

"Don't objectify me… let's go" Dean walked forwards and Cas had to step aside to keep the man from walking into him; he tilted his head to the side as his eyes followed Dean. He watched the curve of Dean's ass as he moved and smirked before following.

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About an hour and a half later Cas was sitting in the small, confining room next to Bela while Dean searched for the hand. He'd learnt Bela's name as he sat in the back seat of the impala and listened to the pair of them talk and he'd instantly recognised her from the 'Winchester Gospel'. He remembered that she made a deal with a demon to steal the colt and kill Sam in order to be released from her contract… so he was going to keep a close eye on her and, even though he'd much rather be with Dean and help him grab the hand, he wasn't going to leave her side when she was near either of the brothers.

Cas threw a look to the door as he heard footsteps approaching on the stairs… and they weren't Sam's or Dean's. He knew that he couldn't let anyone find out that Dean was no-longer in the room and so he pushed a memory into the guards mind to make him believe he'd just checked on them.

But it was an Archangel's ability to make humans see things that aren't real and even though Cas was now more than strong enough to be able to do it, he'd never tried before. The angel took a deep breath as the steps on the stair case stopped and waited until they had turned to walk back the way they'd come before he let it out again in a sigh of relief. It was only a few seconds later that the angel heard Dean nearing the door way. His friend opened the door and rushed in. Castiel took another moment to gaze at the curve of Dean's ass in the tight-fitting trousers while the humans talked.

Dean pulled out the hand and wrapped it in a handkerchief and Bela made a grabby motion, wanting to take the hand into her bag to hide it. Dean flat out refused and placed it back into his pocket. Both humans turned to walk out of the room, Bela extremely close to Dean.

Then Cas saw her slip her fingers into his pocket and replace the hand with a ship in a bottle. She placed the hand into her bag and continued to walk out but Cas grabbed her wrist, turning visible.

"What the _hell_?" Bela shouted and Cas mentally sound proofed the room so that none of the woman's shouts could make it to the guests downstairs. Cas's face was set in a hard mask of dislike as she squirmed to get away.

"Let her go" Dean said in a firm voice as he aimed the colt at Castiel's head. The Angel turned to look at it but refused to show his fear at the weapon pointed to his vessel's skull. His grace automatically cast towards the weapon to study it's power and the damage it could do to him and Cas bulked at the results. It wouldn't do a thing. Not a damn thing. And not just to him… but to _any_ angel more powerful than a cherub.

The realisation that him and Dean had spent the past five years of their lives chasing after a useless gun washed over him and he felt the twinge of anger develop. The gun would never have worked on Lucifer and he'd completely wasted five years.

"What are you doing here?" Dean asked and Bela winced at the pain occurring in her wrist where Cas was holding her too tight.

"He's breaking my wrist! That's what he's doing! So stop talking and _shoot him!_" Bela shouted as she pulled again to get away. Cas levelled her with a deadly glare but released a small amount of his grip, not enough for her to get away though.

"Check your pocket" Cas said in a bristly tone, getting more and more agitated by the second. Dean glowered at him for a second and looked like he was about to attempt a witty remark when the eldest Winchester noticed Bela's shocked and worried look. He frowned and put the gun into his left hand, keeping it trained on Castiel as he lowered his right hand and pulled out the handkerchief covered object. He flicked his wrist in order to move some of the light fabric out of the way and glanced down to see a ship in a bottle.

Cas watched triumphantly as Dean lowered the gun away from his face and glared at Bela.

"Where's the hand?"

"In her bag" Cas answered even though the question had been directed at the woman. Dean put the colt so it was facing the ground instead of Cas and reached in to remove the object from Bela's possession. The eldest Winchester shook his head in exasperation as he looked at the hand in the handkerchief.

"I don't even know why I'm surprised" he muttered and nodded at Cas, "you can let her go now."

Castiel looked into the bright green eyes, taken aback by how much _life _was in them. In the future Dean was hardly ever happy or content, he was just angry. Any emotion other than anger and resentment had wilted away long ago and was just a memory. But here Dean was filled to the brim of emotions. He was never just one thing; he was always happy, or excited, or boastful, or sad, or any of his other millions of emotions. Every one of them Cas adored to see, even the negative. Up until now he had never seen this Dean angry, not really. He had expected to see a ghost of the future Dean in those eyes, he had expected them to be dead of anything but rage. But they weren't. He was angry, angrier than Cas had seen him so far, but his eyes were filled with other emotions too; there was fear and sadness and even excitement for the hunt. It was amazing to see those eyes look like that, enthralling.

Cas kept eye contact as he released Bela from his hold and she stumbled backwards, rubbing her wrists.

"Why are you here?" Dean asked, confused, and Cas shrugged. He wasn't really sure how he could answer that.

"I was bored"

"Right…" Dean muttered and Cas could see the doubt behind the green eyes. Dean turned to glare at Bela and lifted a finger at her in warning. "_You_ are not going to follow me"

"I'll make sure she doesn't" Castiel said before Bela had a chance to reply with a sharp comment. But then she cast a scared look at the angel and a pleading one at Dean.

"You're not going to leave me with _him_?"

"He's not gonna hurt you…" Dean muttered and Cas was a little surprised. The eldest Winchester stared back at him, the 'are you?' plain to see in his eyes and Cas shook his head to say he wouldn't lay a hand on her.

"You say that as if he wasn't just about to break my wrist"

"You over exaggerate" Cas muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"If you _are _staying with her then take her to 29 Ox Road; me and Sam are staying there and I need a word with her after this is over." Cas nodded and stretched his wings to fly them both to the abandoned house that his friends were squatting in. He would normally grab hold of the person he was trying to fly with but found the idea of touching Bela again fairly unsanitary. So he instead carried her with his mind.

Once they landed Bela took a step away from him and threw him a dizzy glare. She was scared but he wasn't going to hurt her so he showed it by sitting down and not paying the woman much attention. It wasn't long before he found himself immensely bored. He produced a book that he was currently reading and leaned back on his chair as he found his page. There had once been a time when he wouldn't need any form of entertainment to keep him happy; but if he was honest he hadn't really known what happiness was, it had simply been a vague concept. But then he'd 'lost his _juice_' (as Dean had once said) and turned practically human. Now he found himself simply unable to sit still for too long, and there was much literature that he had always longed to read. He was starting with the classics; he'd already read a series of books by Terry Pratchett and then he had started on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He had to say that he found Sherlock Holmes to be a fairly relatable character at times.

Castiel was pondering his connection with the fictional character when he heard the front door open. He sat up instantly and searched with his mind to find that Bela had just snuck out through the front door. She obviously didn't think that he'd be able to hear her and that he was distracted enough to_ not _notice. Cas pulled the book away again and stretched out his wings. He reached out with his sense and found Bela instantly, she was running fairly quickly away from the house and nearing the docks. He flew to the spot several feet in front of her direction. When Bela saw him she fell backwards onto the floor in her efforts to rapidly turn back around. Cas sighed and lowered his hand to her in offering but she pulled back away from it.

"You're going to ruin that pretty little dress of yours" he mocked, keeping in character. But she just scowled and pulled herself up. She stood facing him defiantly, trying to make him believe that she wasn't scared of him. Cas frowned at her, she shouldn't be scared of him. Not because he's an angel and not going to hurt her, that she doesn't know… but in the books she was described as practically fearless. She was always put into situations that could get her hurt or maimed but she never let on that she was scared, even when she was. So why was she acting this way now? Cas tilted his head at her and skimmed her thoughts.

Everything was a jumble from her fear and so her thoughts kept jumping rapidly from one thing to the next. But one thing that caught Castiel's attention was something that appeared several times; '_does he know? I have to get away from him… he could know. He seems to know a lot why wouldn't he know this_'. Cas frowned, thinking Bela must be on about her demon deal and after a slight bit more concentration he was able to read deeper and he was proved right.

'_Shit!_' Bela thought suddenly as Cas began to draw away from her mind, he looked closer at her and saw she was staring wide-eyed over his shoulder. Castiel didn't need to turn around to see what she was seeing because Bela's mind soon became active and she was thinking about the ghost ship. The death omen.

"Aren't you glad I stopped you from stealing the hand now" he said cynically.

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"You know that what Sam and Dean do is for the good" Cas said to Bela once they were back in the house his friends were squatting in. "If you had gotten away with that hand then you'd be dead within days and it would just keep killing" Bela stared at him but didn't respond. After a couple of minutes he gave up and just returned to his book.

"Who are you?" Bela asks, curious, but this time it's Cas's turn to ignore her. "You're obviously connected to Dean somehow, but he seems to trust you as far as he can throw you. His first reaction to seeing you grab me was to threaten you. So what is it? Why are you here?" Cas flicked his eyes up over the top of the book and glanced at her before returning to reading. "Ah. I see. You want to have sex with him"

Cas's eyes flicked back up to her and widened a little; Bela just smirked and shrugged.

"I saw you checking him out earlier, you were staring at his ass like it had personally offended you and you wanted to teach it a lesson" she said with a laugh, "I have to say though, I'm not all that surprised. In that _tux_… he looks so good even _I _want him"

Cas lowered his gaze back to his book and pretended to read while she grinned to herself. She knew next to nothing about him, but she'd found a leverage which she could use if he were to tell the Winchesters anything about herself. And so she was now suddenly much more calm and back to the Bela he'd read about in the books. Thinking about those books made him internally scowl. Now that the shock had worn off and he wasn't so consumed by grief, he had a lot of questions that Chuck… God…. needed to answer. He longed to go back to his Father and get answers, but he couldn't. Not yet. He was in hiding from angels because they would just try to stop him and for all they knew, Chuck was the new prophet and so he was guarded by Raphael. To go near that house would let them know he was still alive and then he'd be on the run from angels. They needed to just think he was dead… at least for now.


	5. Chapter 5 - A Very SPN Christmas

**Sorry for how small this chapter is, I just really wanted to write this part but couldn't see Cas doing much.**

**Also, I'm well aware it's been over a week since my last update and I'm sorry about that. I had planned on posting this chapter on 24th but I spent the entire day watching Teen Wolf and making a dress so I forgot, 25th was my birthday and I was out the entire day, 26th and 27th I spent, again, watching Teen Wolf and embroidering Loki onto a different dress. Also my brother came to visit on the 27th and stayed all weekend so I didn't really have any time to look over this until today. Sorry.**

**I would really appreciate a few reviews as late birthday presents to help cheer me up. If I get just one review for this chapter then I promise that I will post the next one tomorrow. **

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**_Chapter 5: A Very Supernatural Christmas_**

Dean flinched back as the woman came near him, he couldn't help it, she was vile and evil and he was probably going to die now. He could hear his brother shouting in pain as the man tortured him and Dean was in a murderous mood because of it. He needed to get out of these ropes, he needed to save his brother and himself. The meadowsweet around his neck rubbed and itched every time he twisted to loosen his restraints, but without a distraction he wouldn't be able to get free.

Dean took a deep breathing, this was it he supposed. Him and Sam would likely die here and then he'd go to hell. He scowled up at the woman as she brought the bowl to him, her knife glinted in her hand, covered in Sam's blood. He may have sworn as she dug the knife into his skin but he wasn't really sure, it was just his body's way of releasing his anger so he no longer felt like he would explode. It was natural, like screaming.

"Oh goodness me! Somebody owes a nickel to the swear jar. Do you know what I say when I feel like swearing? Fudge" The woman, well Pagan God, said to him and he scowled as she brought down the knife to his arm again. He had a little more control of himself now and so could think more coherently.

"You fudging touch me again and I'll fudging kill ya!" He shouted and the woman smiled at him.

"Very good" she appraised and lowered the blade onto his other arm, slicing the skin. Dean's mind was running a mile a minute, adrenaline had started to burn and he struggled once more to get free without either of the Gods noticing. The adrenaline wouldn't last long but he didn't think _he'd_ last long either. Dean felt sick as he thought over his behaviour from the previous weeks, he'd been so reckless. He was given permission to scheme his way out of the contract but hadn't thought he'd be able to and so he'd been hasty with his plans. Like just last week when he was hunting that vamp before he ran into Gordon. He'd cut his arm open, not unlike the Pagan God had just done to him, and lured the vampire with his scent. He had been so sure that it didn't matter if he died then, because he was going to hell either way so why not use it to his advantage. Even afterwards he hadn't cared that he could have died, but he'd just been numb to it all and he wasn't anymore. Dean felt the fear that he might die course through his veins and he knew that he didn't want to give up and act that way again. If he could just live past this day.

The woman was still leaning over him and he could hear Sam behind him and feel his brother struggling against the restraints, when suddenly a hand grabbed onto the woman's head from behind and she started screaming as a bright light started to glow in her eyes. Dean was fighting the urge to look away when the male Pagan God pushed at the person holding his wife who Dean couldn't quite see. Then a man stumbled backwards into Dean's line of vision, it was the Trickster. He looked exactly the same as every other time they'd met; scruffy, well worn clothes with a gun belt hanging loosely around his waist, his hair an un-styled, floppy mess and the start of a beard that never seemed to change or look recently trimmed even though it never seemed to grow.

The Trickster looked slightly startled by both of the Gods' strength when the woman span herself around to face him and grabbed a hold of his arms, pinning them down and out of the way as the male God neared the trickster while wilding a knife. There was a sudden burst of energy emanated from the Trickster that hit both of the Winchesters, though it obviously wasn't aimed at them because it barely felt more than a gust of wind whereas the Gods were forced backwards by the energy.

The Trickster turned to Dean and Sam and lifted his hand at them, their bonds broke immediately and both brothers scrambled out of the chairs and onto their feet.

"Run!" The Trickster shouted and they did. Both Winchesters rushed into the basement where they'd dropped their evergreen stakes. They grabbed the wood and turned to make their way back up the stairs when there was a sudden crash and a scream of anger from the female God.

Dean and Sam shared a look before bounding up the steps two at a time. They were in a rush, the Trickster was fighting two Gods and if he were to loose and die then they would be stuck in this basement and probably wouldn't survive the night. At least if they attack the Gods too then they have a fighting chance of survival.

When they got back into the kitchen there was a hole in the wall where the male God was lying, dead. His eyes were smoking the slightest bit and looked like they'd been burnt out of his skull. The female God was angrier than ever before and more vicious. She attempted to bite a chunk out of the Trickster's arm but he dodged her attack. Dean didn't waste any time and rushed forwards. He plunged his stake into the woman's back, getting right between the ribs and into the fleshy muscle of her heart. The God coughed and spluttered as she went into cardiac arrest and died seconds later.

Dean panted as he let go of his hold on the woman and the body dropped to the floor with a wet thud. He looked up into the blue eyes of the Trickster and conveyed his gratitude for him saving them in that one look. The Trickster nodded and looked like he was going to disappear when Sam rushed forward.

"You're bleeding" the youngest Winchester said in a voice that was strained with the effort of hiding his worry. Both Dean and the Demi-God looked down at the direction that Sam was staring at and they noticed the dark red of blood on the Trickster's shirt, growing at every second.

The Trickster lifted up the shirt to unveil his taut, muscled abdomen and the gaping gash that was spread over it. Then the skin began to knit together before their eyes, sealing the wound with only the thick red liquid to prove it had ever been there.

"I'm fine" he said, pulling the shirt back down. "I thought I told you two to leave"

"We're not going to leave a job unfinished" Dean said and there were a few seconds of silence until Sam piped up again.

"What was that light? I mean I couldn't really see because I was facing the other way but it looked like you were causing it" Sam questioned with a slightly fascinated look that made Dean roll his eyes. But the Trickster never answered and a second later disappear from their sight.


	6. Chapter 6 - Dream a little Dream of Me

**As promised, I got reviews so I'm updating again. Sorry once more for the widely varying chapter lengths, this one is longer than most of the others because there's just so much that could happen. It's also one of my more favourite chapters of the ones that are based on S3 episodes (although, in my opinion, the better ones don't come until after the _'No Rest for the Wicked'_ chapter)**

**Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, favourited, bookmarked, subscribed and given kudos to this fic.**

**Please review to let me know what you think of this chapter.**

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**_Chapter 6: Dream a little Dream of Me_**

Cas had long since finished his reading of the collection of Doyle books and was onto Jane Austen novels. He found the story lines less enticing then that of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries but enjoyed them none the less.

A great sadness was caught from both Dean's and Sam's sensors and Cas prepared himself for whatever was wrong as he stretched his wings and flew to his friends. He landed invisibly so that he could scope the room and was shocked and saddened to find Bobby lying on a hospital bed and linked to machines. Bobby had been a good friend of his in the future and he had considerably missed the grumpy man. He didn't hesitate in his decision to heal his old friend.

He turned visible next to Bobby's bed and both the Winchesters stiffened at his presence. They didn't like him being here and they _really_ didn't like when he lowered his hand onto the comatose man's head.

"What are you doing?!" Dean shouted as he ran towards him and grabbed a hold of Cas's arm. But Dean wasn't strong enough to stop him. He touched his palm to Bobby's forehead and pushed his grace inside in order to heal his mind and force him awake. Dean was shouting in his ear, telling him to leave Bobby alone when the man sat up suddenly in his bed with heavy breaths. Dean fell silent as Cas removed his hand and Sam rushed to his pseudo Father's side.

"Bobby! Hey! You alright?" Sam asked in a hushed tone and Dean let his grip on the angel fall as he looked down at Bobby. The man was breathing heavily as he recovered from his induced nightmare and Cas slowly stepped away to give him some room with his surrogate children.

"'Cause I'm alright boy" Bobby muttered and Sam laughed light heartedly.

"Thank you" the youngest Winchester said in earnest as he turned his eyes to Cas. The overwhelming sadness that had been emitting from both brothers had completely faded now and he could no-longer sense their emotions without reading their minds.

"What happened Bobby?" Dean asked quietly and the older man went into an explanation about the dream walker. Cas pondered his memory as he recalled the books and about how they were going to get dream root from Bela and she would steal the colt from them.

He stuck around and said he wanted to help and, even though Bobby and Dean were both suspicious of him, no-one objected. It was a two days later when they realised that it was impossible to find him, even Cas couldn't, and Bobby was tired.

"I think I'm just gonna have to go back to sleep and fight him off that way" Bobby muttered around a yawn.

"That's not very wise" Cas said at the same time that Dean and Sam expressed their dislike of the plan.

"Well I can't avoid sleep forever"

"You can't face him _alone_, Bobby" Sam said in a concerned voice.

"Well there ain't exactly a lot of options, boy"

"We can take some of that dream-root crap and come too"

"And where are you going to get some?" Bobby said cynically.

"Crap" Dean muttered.

"What?"

"Bela"

"Bela? Crap" Sam responded.

"I can put you into Bobby's dream without the root" Cas said and all three men turned to look at him.

"No offence, but I'm not really liking the idea of you being in my head" Bobby said cautiously and Cas shrugged his shoulder.

"I don't need to go in to send these two in"

"Hell no" Dean said.

"Dean… I hate to say it" Bobby started, "but it's the best idea we've got. Bela ain't exactly going to offer up the root for free"

Dean looked over at Sam for back-up but Sam agreed with Bobby and so the eldest Winchester gave in. Cas once again placed his hand on Bobby's forehead and pushed his grace inside, this time to make him sleep and afterwards he sent the brothers in too while he waited in the room to watch out for them.

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"You're going to die! And _this_… this is what you're going to become!" Cas reached out and grabbed the Dream-Dean's head. He pushed his grace into it and disintegrated it, the body dropped, dead. Dean looked up at him with wide eyes and Cas shrugged.

"It was annoying me" he said simply and walked off. Dean followed.

"What the _hell_ are you doing here?" Dean shouted and Cas scoffed a laugh. He'd been doing as they asked and waiting outside of Bobby's head when he felt pulverising fear attack Dean and he'd jumped in without a second thought. "And why do you look like a tax accountant?" Cas froze and looked down at himself. Sure enough he was wearing his old suit and tan overcoat. He smiled lightly and rubbed at his chin, feeling that his stubble was shorter and more tamed, he then ran his hand through his hair. He was exactly how he _used_ to be.

"I guess since I'm in here the dream has taken some of my memories too" Cas chuckled "I've missed this" he said and Dean frowned in confusion.

"Well, yeah I have to admit you look a lot better then the 'hobo' look you usually have"

"I think I'll stay this way from now on" he nodded to himself and then looked at Dean, frowning "where's your brother"

"We got separated"

"Great" Cas muttered sarcastically, when he landed in Bobby's head he'd only _just_ managed to sense Dean, and he knew him extremely well, however in the future he hadn't seen much of Sam past when Lucifer rose so there was _no way_ he was going to be able to track him.

"Can't you find him?" Dean asked worriedly.

"No, but don't worry, I'm sure he's fine. Dreams are completely different to reality and I'm not as powerful here."

"You seemed pretty powerful back there" Dean said snidely and Cas smirked.

"That was easy… tracking is different. I only managed to find you because of the contract" Cas lied easily, thinking it best to not mention their bond… Dean barely even knew him yet. They walked aimlessly for a short time; at first in an alleyway, then the buildings turned to trees and right up ahead there was… Cas froze.

Dean walked ahead a few steps before noticing and turned back to him. But Cas was staring wide eyed at the camp that lay just ahead of those trees. Camp Chitaqua. Castiel took a few deep breaths and moved forwards again, towards the camp.

"What was that about?" Dean asked him.

"You should stay here" he replied with a tight voice and the hunter next to him shook his head.

"No"

"Dean…"

"Do you think I'm going to let you run around in Bobby's head by yourself? No. I'm going anywhere you are" Cas stopped at the entrance of the camp and turned to his friend.

"This is part of _my_ dream, Dean… do you _really_ want to know what I dream about?" Cas asked, though technically he never dreamt because he didn't sleep. But he meditated occasionally and sometimes his mind wandered into a dream-like state. Dean seemed to pale at the thought of that, but he still nodded.

"Lead the way"

Cas turned and stalked into the camp; he had to check it out in case the dream walker was hiding out there but he _really_ didn't want to; especially not with Dean by his side. The two walked through the deserted camp, moving through every cabin and checking every room. When they got to his cabin Cas concentrated on a picture there; one where himself, Dean and Chuck posed with there weapons and a friendly smile Cas used his grace to turn Dean's face into someone else from the camp and then he carried on checking the cabin. He turned around to see Dean holding the picture and frowning.

"Where are we?" he asked as he put the frame back on the table, but Cas just walked outside again. They checked every single cabin at the camp and there was only one place left to check. He sighed and walked towards the graveyard with Dean in tow. In his time there was around fifteen graves, but in his dream there was more like seventy. All of them were the people that resided in their camp.

Cas skimmed his gaze across the area and was satisfied that no-one was there, but he couldn't bring himself to turn around just yet. He took a deep breath and slowly walked up to a specific grave near the back of the lot. He crouched next to it and dipped his head in sadness. It was Dean's grave. Dean watched Cas's actions, he could see the grief and sadness on his face and realised what a personal moment it was for him. He felt bad for insisting on coming with him. Cas had tears in his eyes as he looked up at Dean, but he blinked them away; leaving Dean to wonder if he'd really seen them.

"This is my family" Cas said quietly, answering Dean's previous question. He looked around at the rest of the graves; he had known the people buried here for years. He would have died for any one of them.

"Big family" Dean noted and Cas scoffed a laugh.

"You haven't met my other one yet… and lets pray you never have to" Dean looked at him confused and Cas sighed. "You aren't the only ones who believe family is more than blood" Dean nodded and Cas looked back at the grave then sighed. "He's not here… we should leave and try somewhere else" he got up and then his heart almost stopped when he saw Sam looming behind his friend. But it wasn't Sam… it was Lucifer. Cas quickly withdrew his blade and Lucifer chuckled, Dean turned in surprise and smiled at who he thought was his brother.

"Dean, that's not Sam. Step _back_" Cas shouted and Lucifer smiled and withdrew his own blade.

"Don't worry Castiel, I'm not going to hurt him as long as he stays out of my way" Cas tried to move towards him but his ankle was suddenly grabbed. He looked down to see a hand raised out of Dean's grave and holding him. It was the kind of unmoveable grip that could only happened in dreams and Cas cursed in anger. He struggled to get free as Lucifer approached him. "_ you_ on the other hand…" Dean looked around for something to use to his advantage and then saw that the other members of Cas's family were also rising from their graves.

"You stop using them!" Cas shouted in anger and sadness, he swung at Lucifer but the Archangel was able to jump out of the way and leaned forward with his own blade to knock Cas's away. Lucifer then grabbed Cas's shoulder and pushed him backwards and onto the floor, he aimed his blade ready to stab at him. Dean struggled with what to do then he suddenly thought about the colt and it materialised in his hand. He didn't have the time to stand in shock, he aimed the gun and fired it into Lucifer's head. Cas immediately jumped off the ground and to his feet.

"You okay?" Dean asked him.

"He's not dead" Cas panted out as he searched the ground for his blade. He knew that the gun wouldn't work on an Archangel. He didn't have time to find his blade before Lucifer was standing again.

"Ouch" he said and then attacked Dean. He pushed him up against a building wall and raised his hand ready to snap his neck using his grace. Cas felt sick with worry and then finally glinted his blade in a bush. "That wasn't very nice Dean." Cas grabbed his blade and plunged it into the Archangel's chest. The angel burst with light as he died and thankfully didn't leave any wing-shaped scorch marks in the ground.

"Who the _hell_ was that?" Dean shouted at him. "And why did he look like Sam?" Cas sighed and looked back towards the graves, the people buried in them had stopped raising but limps and sometimes heads were sticking out from the ground, in one case the whole top half of a rotting body.

"He was my brother" Cas spit the words out as if they disgusted him, which they _did_. He walked over to Dean's grave and was thankful that only his hands were out of the dirt. He crouched by his former lover and placed one hand on the mud, the body started to move again, his time shrinking back into the ground. He swallowed hard at having to re-burry his lover and breathed heavily from the ache in his chest.

"Why was he wearing _my_ brother?" Dean asked, but more sensitively now.

"It's a dream, our thoughts probably got muddled and produced him… I know what Azazel said to you, that he'd made you wonder if that really is Sam, so you've probably been worrying that something like this could happened" Cas answered softly and ran his hand over the grave beneath him gently, saying goodbye. He then got up and left, all the other bodies were still half out of their graves but Cas didn't make a move to change that; he wanted to but it would take up too much of his power.

"Was that your…" Dean paused, searching for the right words since the hands had obviously been male, "partner?"

"Yes" Cas said simply and they walked out of the camp.

"And your name is _Castiel_?" Cas looked at him and frowned.

"Yes"

"No wonder you didn't tell me, it's quite a mouthful" Cas smiled but Dean could still see the heartbreak in his eyes.

"I didn't tell you because I faked my death." Cas said quietly as he thought his way through this mess he'd created, trying to keep it as close to the truth as possible. That way it would be more plausible and easier to remember. Technically, he hadn't really faked his death but, with his sudden disappearance, all the angels would think he was dead by now. "There are a lot of monsters out there that would have some questions for me if they knew I was alive and they wouldn't hesitate to torture or kill you if they thought you knew where I am"

"Mind being a little less vague? What are we talking about here?" Cas sighed and looked at the Winchester.

"My brothers and sisters for one…" Dean gulped as he thought that over; one of them in a dream had been bad enough, but Cas said that his other family was huge…

"Why do they want you?"

"It's… complicated"

"Well if you want me to keep your name a secret then I'm going to need more than that" Dean said and Cas looked at him with surprise, "So, what d'ya say Cas? Story telling time?" Castiel smiled at his nickname and nodded. He couldn't tell Dean the complete truth… but maybe a little wouldn't hurt.

"My older siblings… they wanted to start a war that would have had devastating effects on the human population and the world itself. Many of us didn't know about this, we were just the grunts, blindly following orders. I found out about what was _really_ happening and so I attempted to stop it… I'm _still_ attempting to stop it…"

"Why do you care?" Dean asked with a frown and Cas lifted his eyes, catching Dean's green ones.

"You are flawed creatures, but you're better then us by far. I don't want to see any more of you die" Dean's brow furrowed and Cas looked away.

"So… you're family. The one back at the camp, they were human?" Cas nodded but then remembered Chuck.

"Most of them, yes"

"Right… I've got to say, you're the first monster I've met that actually thinks we're better than you"

"Well, the rest of them obviously haven't spent time with my siblings" Cas joked. "So you believe me?"

"Yeah… God help me, but I do" Dean muttered, making Cas smile. It was only a quick involuntary twist of lips before he forced himself back into his character.

He could feel it becoming harder and harder to act like he didn't care about the Winchesters, sometimes his mask would drop and they could see him as who he really was. He wasn't yet sure if it would be a good or bad thing if he just dropped the act all together, so until he decided he would carry on the same as he'd started.

"So," Dean said while scouting the area in front of them, "what happened back with the Pagan Gods? Why do you keep coming to help?" He asked before quickly adding "not that I'm complaining"

Cas chuckled a little at Dean's words.

"The contract is a strong bond between us, through it I sensed your pain when they were torturing you. I came because you two are fairly interesting… it'd be a shame for you to die"

"Wow… really feeling the love" Dean said dryly and Cas huffed out a laugh. He thought back a week ago to when he had felt Dean being tortured and could barely hold in the shudder. The pain itself hadn't been too bad, he knew they had felt a lot worse and so he didn't go straight away when he felt the cut on Sam's arm. It was only when he felt a similar cut on Dean's that he had gotten suspicious. When he had focused on the sensor inside Dean he had felt the sadness and anger and horrifying fear that went with it and he hadn't wasted any time in flying to their assistance.

He knew that they had been facing Pagan Gods because the sensors had warned him, but he hadn't expected the Gods to be as strong as they were. They'd had several sacrifices in the past few weeks and so their reflexes were fast and they were powerful. But he was still an angel, and no matter how strong they were, they couldn't kill him without an angel blade.

"I suppose that if I asked about that light then you wouldn't tell me?" Dean asked and Cas shook his head, there was no way to explain that he could burn evil out of a body by his mere touch to their core. "Well, whatever it is, it sure comes in handy"

That's when Cas felt the dream-world shake and become unstable. The dream-walker was dying.

**_(Dean's Point of View)_**

Dean woke up with a harsh breath, his mind and body hurt at how sudden the dream had collapsed. He sat up and saw Cas standing in the room and staring at him. The Trickster God looked the same as he had done in the dream; his hair was short and windswept, his stubble was tamed and barely there and his somewhat dirty hippy clothes were replaced with a suit, blue tie and a tan overcoat. Cas nodded at him once and then disappeared.

"Was that the _Trickster_?" Sam ask, shocked and Dean looked over to wear he was sitting in one of the chairs at the table, having gone to sleep there.

"Sure looked like" Bobby muttered from the other bed in the room as he rubbed at his temple.

"He was in the dream" Dean said quietly and Bobby turned to face him, he didn't look happy about that. "Showed up not long after we got separated and he was looking like that… said something about it being a memory and that he was going to stay that way from now on" Dean said around a yawn. "What happened to the dream-walker?"

"I… I don't really know how, but I brought his biggest fear into the dream… his Dad"

"More of that psychic stuff?" Bobby asked and Sam shrugged, looking a little uneasy at the thought.

"No, I did something similar" Dean said, thinking about how the colt had materialised, "dreams are different then reality, we can do things we wouldn't normally be able to" Sam seemed relieved by his answer and smiled ever so slightly. "By the way, I think you're right about the Trickster… killing him will do no good, we've got to find a different way around the deal"

"What made you change your mind?" Sam asked and Dean shrugged, he took a moment to think what he could tell his family about Cas and decided that, as long as they didn't know his _real_ name, he could tell them pretty much everything.

"I was in his dream for a bit and… I don't know, it was an experience"

"What'd you find out?" Bobby asked and Dean shrugged again.

"Not much… his name's Cas. I don't think it's his real name but it's something. Also, his brother's a dickhead"

"I guess I can relate to him there…" Sam muttered and Dean glared at him.

"Bitch"

"Jerk"


	7. Chapter 7 - Mystery Spot

**Wow, guys. I got like 7 reviews for that last chapter. That's the most reviews I've got on a single chapter for this entire fic :D I hope you all are enjoying it and I love reviews so thank you all so, so much.**

**Also, this chapter was meant to be posted yesterday but wasn't working and I couldn't get onto the site.**

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**_Chapter 7: Mystery Spot_**

Castiel rubbed at his forehead as he attempted to fly towards Sam and Dean, but every time he tried his mind got scrambled and he forgot what he was doing and ending up doing something else instead. It was an obvious decoy that only _Gabriel_ would think of doing and it was really getting on his nerves. Castiel knew the exact moment that the Winchesters came near to the Archangel and if the perception filter is anything to go by, then Gabriel knew as well. Cas could easily break the field of energy that surrounded the perception filter and prevented him from entering… but it would alert his brother to the fact he was there and he _really_ didn't need that right now. So instead he was left to test the walls, see if one part of the filter was weaker than the others.

And then Dean died.

Because of Dean's sensor, Cas felt the bullet pierce the man's chest. He felt the spluttering of Dean's heart as it tried and failed to keep the blood circling his body. He felt him go into cardiac arrest and he felt the exact moment when his body gave out.

And then the day restarted.

Castiel's head spun and he felt something akin to whiplash… this was _not_ good. He remembered this from one of the books and it had gone on for weeks. But he couldn't let that happen. Castiel felt sick at the idea of having to feel Dean's death again, he felt none of the physical pain but it made him emotionally distraught. So he started going at the walls of the energy with more determination. But the next time Dean died it was a lot sooner then it had been the first time. He was hit by something travelling at high speed, probably a car or bus. This time he died of respiratory arrest when his lungs and other organs stopped working; it took longer for him to die. On day three he was hit by something else, but it was different. His organs were destroyed and he died on impact.

By the time that Dean starts choking on day four, Cas is a mess. He couldn't get through the _damned_ wall without alerting Gabriel… and letting the Archangel know he was here could be a very big mistake. But it was just one he was going to have to make. Cas gathered a small amount of grace and used it to push through the perimeter. He landed invisibly in a heap on the floor of the Winchesters' motel room. He stood up slowly and looked around, it was first thing in the morning and Sam was just getting out of bed as Dean sang along to some annoying song playing from the alarm clock. Sam looked as fed-up as Cas felt and he remembered that out of everyone in the town, only the Trickster, who Cas now realised must have been Gabriel, and Sam remembered the repeated days. Cas had felt Dean die… but Sam had seen it. And he was beginning to look numb.

"You need to leave" Cas said as he appeared in front of the Winchesters. "Right _now_" both the brother's looked shocked by his sudden appearance but that only lasted a few seconds.

"Why?" Dean asked and Cas pointedly looked at Sam. It would be better coming from Sam then himself.

"We're caught in a time loop and you… you keep dying" Sam muttered, "and then the day resets. And it's Tuesday again"

"That's crazy"

"Not necessarily" Cas said and both brother's turned to look at him once more. He was fidgeting with his unease at how he broke his way in; Gabriel could show up at any second.

"Okay… well how come I don't remember any of this?" Dean asked agitatedly.

"Because you're not supposed to remember. Only Sam is" Cas replied. _He_ wasn't even supposed to remember any of the days and he wouldn't remember if it wasn't for the sensor he placed inside Dean; if Cas couldn't sense Dean's death then every time that the day reset his day would play out the exact same way and so the resetting wouldn't effect him and he wouldn't remember them.

"Why does it keep happening?" Sam asked desperately and it reminded Cas once again about how many times Sam had seen his brother die in the past few days.

"One of my brothers is doing it"

Dean who had been standing by his bed seemed to stand up a little straighter and Cas knew, without even having to read his mind, that Dean was remembering Lucifer from the dream. Dean nodded and moved to grab his bag from the table and start packing when he suddenly slipped on his own feet and went hurtling towards the ground. His head banged loudly on the corner of his end table and cracked his skull open. Cas didn't even have chance to move and heal him before the day was reset.

He found himself back in the safe house he created and cursed loudly.

His head span. He had felt _and_ seen Dean die this time and it was worse then he had thought it'd be. He felt his normal whiplash feeling from being forced back to the beginning of the day again. But this time it felt even more horrible because he'd been flung hundreds of miles away from where he had been when the last loop had ended. He took too long to be able to find the ground under his feet when he stood up and by the time he thought he might be able to fly again Dean had already died. He'd bled out from being shot several times.

Castiel felt weak and sick when the day restarted and he knew it was because of Gabriel. The Archangel had to know that Cas was trying to interfere with what he was doing and so instead of attempt to kill him, he decided to do this to keep him at bay. But Cas was stronger than Gabriel knew and so he shook off the feeling quicker and forced himself through the field once again. He was later getting through then he thought he'd be and by the time he found the brothers, they were just walking into a diner. He stood across the street and saw them walking right past Gabriel without either Winchester noticing. Cas stared at the Archangel with trepidation… he was stronger than Gabriel now, but he still feared his older brother's power. After about five minutes Gabriel left the diner and Cas felt safe enough to enter. He walked in and stood next to Sam and Dean's table. Sam looked relieved to see him and instantly scooted over in his seat so the angel could sit down, but Dean seemed worried. When Dean noticed Sam's reaction his look turned suspicious and a bit hurt which confused Cas but he didn't have the time to investigate further.

"What are you doing here?" Dean asked warily, casting his eyes back and forth between Sam and Cas.

"There's no time to explain again" Cas said to Dean and then turned to face Sam. "Why haven't you left yet?"

"Make time" Dean said angrily with a slightly raised voice and Cas flexed his jaw as he took a deep breath in through his nose and ignored the eldest Winchester. Sam seemed to want to explain to Dean but he knew that Cas was right and they might not have the time to.

"The car broke down yesterday when we were on the way out of here and Dean couldn't fix it so it went to the garage and Dean got shot when the place got robbed"

"What the _hell_ are you two on about?!" Dean all but shouted angrily at them and Cas understood but he couldn't help.

"Well I can barely get myself _in_ here so I don't think I can fly you out" Cas muttered, "I'm going to have to talk to my brother"

"Wait. _What_ about your brother?" Dean asked, looking a little scared and Cas took a deep, annoyed, breath.

"He stuck Sam in Groundhog Day" Cas said curtly to Dean; he used the film that he had once watched with Dean as a way to get the eldest Winchester to understand without having to waste time explaining.

"O-kay…" Dean said, drawing out the word, "and now you want to _talk_ to him? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I don't _want_ to talk to him. I have to"

"Still…"

"I should start looking for him" Cas said suddenly and stood up from the bench. He walked straight out of the diner without another thought. He'd seen Gabriel sitting at a table and the best way to find him would just be to wait until the day reset itself… but he didn't want to have to feel Dean die again.

However, he only had a few minutes before he felt Dean being impaled in the chest. He'd died almost instantly and Cas was sent back to his safe house.

He took several deep breaths and sat out the dizzy spell that overcame him. When he got back to Dean and Sam they were in the diner. He looked inside and wished that he could take his time confronting Gabriel… but he couldn't indulge his cowardice because Dean could die at any moment.

Cas walked into the diner. Dean noticed him instantly and Sam turned around to see him as well, not expecting him to walk right past them and sit by the man eating pancakes at the counter. Sam realised straight away that the man must be Cas's brother and he stood up angrily but Cas just glared at him until he sat back down.

"Castiel," Gabriel muttered around a mouthful of pancakes, "tell me… why do you have such an interest in the Winchesters?"

"I could ask you the same question"

Gabriel shook his head and motioned at him with his fork.

"No. I'm just doing this because it's fun. But you. You've got something up your sleeve. I can tell"

"You could say that" Cas said. His wardings couldn't hide that he was an angel from someone as strong as his brother, they couldn't even hide his identity. But they _did_ hide his true power.

"From what I remember, you were never one hundred percent obedient… but to come down here and take a vessel? I didn't expect that. You must have one hell of a reason… so what is it?" Cas felt Dean and Sam's restlessness radiating off them and knew that he didn't have too much time left to talk to his brother before they would intervene. He sighed in slight discomfort and ignored the question

"You need to let them go"

"You expect me to believe that _that's_ your reason? You weren't obedient but you were still a good soldier. If you had noticed something was going on and investigated, finding out that it was me, you would have informed others and Michael would be sitting in your place."

"Gabriel, you need to stop with this game"

"I'm having too much fun" Gabriel laughed darkly and stood up, apparently no-longer caring about Cas's reasoning. Cas grabbed his arm in a strong hold to keep him from moving.

"If you don't stop… then _I_ will stop you" Cas said mincingly with a hard stare. Gabriel smirked and was about to retort when Cas dropped his barriers. He dropped his warding for a brief second and allowed the Archangel to see _exactly_ how powerful he was. Gabriel's slightly fear-widened eyes were the only evidence that he'd noticed before the Archangel fled the diner. Cas was surprised when he looked around and noticed that no-one but the Winchesters had seen Gabriel's disappearance.

Both of the brothers walked over to him at the same time he felt the field around the city disperse.

"He's gone now but I still suggest that you leave too"

"We'll get right on that… thanks" Dean added after a seconds pause; Sam must have explained to him about what was going on..

"Why was he doing it?" Sam asked and Cas shrugged.

"He said it was 'fun'"

"He was your brother? You're telling me that's just a coincidence?" Dean asked.

"I have many siblings"

"What did you tell him to make him stop?" Dean continued and Cas shook his head and sighed loudly.

"That's not important… look, next time you need my help, just try praying. I'm a Norse God, I'll hear" he said, and then he turned invisible. A man sitting a few tables away dropped his fork back onto the table as he saw it and both the Winchesters left the diner quickly. Cas followed them until they left the town to make sure they weren't going to be harmed and he couldn't help but overhear their conversations. He wasn't all that shocked to hear that, with him being secretive about his brother, they weren't feeling too trusting of him and they probably wouldn't be praying any time soon.

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**Yes, sorry. They're warming up to Cas, but they also still think he's a monster. Sam and Dean aren't quite trusting yet… but don't worry, they'll get there eventually :)**

**Also, in case anyone forgot, the reason why Gabe was so shocked about Cas taking a vessel in particular is because they were like forbidden or something at the time**


	8. Chapter 8 - Jus in Bello

**Wow, guys. Once again your reviews are amazing. I love you all so much and I'm so glad you are enjoying my fic. Hopefully my posting should get more frequent then just once a week because comic con is over and done with as of this previous weekend. I met Stan Lee and he did the spiderman pose with me! I'm not sure if anyone cares but if you want to see pictures from London Film and Comic Con then I've posted a few on my fandom instagram account (pieprincess_andthe_fallenangel).**

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_**Chapter 8: Jus in Bello**_

Cas had been attempting to avoid Gabriel since they'd met, but the Archangel was searching him out. He wasn't sure why his brother was doing it but Cas knew that he shouldn't talk to him about _anything_. He took a deep, unneeded, breath and flew away as he felt his brother approaching. It had been like this for several days now and he was tired. Not physically tired, he could quite literally do this for years. But mentally tired. He didn't _want_ to keep avoiding his brother.

Cas felt a warning go off in his grace not long after Dean was shot, it had only been a flesh wound on his shoulder and so was nothing to worry about… but now the sensors he'd left on the Winchesters picked up that they were in serious danger. He opened his mind to the information and his eyes widened in shock. There were at least thirty demons advancing on them, they'd be there in less than twenty minutes. He swallowed. He needed to go help them but he could already feel Gabriel was getting close again, and it was probably a bad idea to lead him to his friends.

Castiel took a deep breath and sent his location to Gabriel. A couple of seconds later the Archangel appeared.

"Hey bro, thanks for the invite"

"Leave me alone for a couple of days then I will be more than happy to answer your questions" Cas said bluntly because he didn't have a lot of time. Gabriel looked at him for a moment and nodded.

"Two days" then he disappeared. Cas sighed in both relief and frustration and flew towards his friends. He was, as always, invisible when he touched ground and he took a moment to take in his surroundings. Dean and Sam were in a cell, a tall black man with a shaved head wearing a suit was lying unconscious on the ground next to them, Dean was holding a gun at him, and another man was lying dead on the floor of the cell. A male officer and a woman were standing outside of the cell in a state of shock. The young woman stepped forwards.

"Is he… is he dead?" She whispered and a second later the black man began to cough and move on the ground.

"Hendrickson…" Sam said as he sat leaning against the bars of the cell and breathing slightly heavily, "hey… is that you in there?" The man, Hendrickson, scrambled to a sitting position and pushed himself up onto the bed, Dean kept the gun pointed at the man's feet, ready to lift it and fire at him if needed. Hendrickson looked around in slight confusion and tilted his head.

"I…" he began, "I shot the sheriff"

Dean smiled lightly.

"But you didn't shoot the deputy" he said and Sam glared at him while Cas burst out laughing, he chose that moment to show himself. Dean spun around and aimed the gun at him, Sam jumped to his feet and everyone else in the room stumbled backwards in shock and fear.

"Damn it, Cas! What the hell are you doing here?" he asked as he lowered the gun. Cas liked to hope that Dean had lowered it because he didn't want to shoot him, but he had a feeling it was more like he just knew it wouldn't do anything but piss him off.

"Oh, I just thought you'd like to know that there's more than thirty demons hightailing there ways here" Sam and Dean shared a look.

"How many more?" Sam asked with a tight voice and Cas shook his head.

"I can't get a good read, there's too many travelling together as one"

"Well fuck" Dean said quietly, "do you know how long?"

"Fifteen minutes, maybe less" Dean nodded, looking at the floor while he thought.

"Thanks Cas" he said eventually, sounding a little bit defeated and Cas listened into his thoughts, shocked to hear that Dean had already decided that he was going to die tonight.

_**(Dean's Point of View)**_

It was hard for him to except, but he knew that he was going to die now. He was going to go to hell.

"I can fly you all out" Cas said and for a moment, Dean had hope. But then it got crushed once he came to his senses a second later.

"We can't leave a swarm of demons here doing God knows what without putting up a fight" Dean muttered solemnly and Cas nodded. Then the Trickster disappeared.

"Shit" Sam mumbled beside him, "of all the times that Cas decided to help us out, now would be good"

Dean nodded but he completely understood. Helping them out now would be suicide. He couldn't blame Cas for leaving them, but he also couldn't help but wish that the Trickster had stayed.

"Yeah, well there's no time to talk. We don't have very long" he turned around to face Hendrickson again and saw the man still hadn't recovered from being possessed; in fact Cas showing up had probably set him back a few steps. "You going to let us out of these things?" He asked with his hands raised to indicate the cuffs that were still on him. Hendrickson nodded and made a signal for the officer behind them to come closer.

"Keys" he said simply to the man and started to unlock their cuffs.

"By the way, we owe you the biggest 'I told you so' ever"

"Alright, so how do we survive?" Hendrickson asked a moment later.

"We start with these" said a deep voice from behind them and Dean jumped and spun around to see Cas standing there once more. His stomach uncurled slightly at the sight of the Trickster as he held up several anti-possession necklaces. Dean also noticed one of his duffel bags hanging off Cas's shoulder that seemed to be filled with guns. The Trickster put everything he was holding on a table and Dean nodded.

"Yeah, everyone put one on. They keep you from being possessed" Dean muttered. Hendrickson moved away from the brothers and towards the table at the same time that Cas moved towards them. Cas lifted his hand and placed it on Dean's shoulder, exactly where he'd been shot. Dean flinched away a little bit before he started to feel something being emitted from Cas. It was hard to describe exactly how it felt as the invisible force sunk into his body; it made him a bit light headed and seemed as though his shoulder muscles were being caressed from the inside.

A second later, when Cas moved his hand, Dean was healed.

"Thanks" he said as he looked into the bright blue eyes that were shining at him; he didn't know what else to say, still too shocked by the fact that Cas had _come back_.

"You're welcome" the Trickster said and broke eye contact. "I got everything from your car but I couldn't find the colt"

"Yeah, Bela rang me yesterday asking for our help. We got there this morning just to be distracted by Hendrickson arresting us and she got away with the gun"

Cas narrowed his eyes as Dean spoke and disappeared again once he'd finished.

"I really wish he'd stop doing that" Dean muttered, mainly to himself but Sam heard and agreed.

"Does he do that a lot?" Hendrickson asked but before either of them could answer Cas was back. And he wasn't alone.

"Get _off_ of me!" Bela shouted at Cas as she tried to wriggle free from his grasp on her arm. Cas just looked at her coolly and handed Dean the colt which he was holding in his other hand.

"Yeah let her go so I can shoot her" Dean said icily as he looked at Bela, a scowl on his face. He was getting increasingly annoyed by her and was about to start yelling when Cas interrupted him.

"Dean, we have less than ten minutes. We _need_ to start preparations"

Bela tugged more at Cas's grasp on her arm and the Trickster let her go. She backed away from them but didn't flee the room like Dean thought she might. She looked scared, close to terrified. And Dean knew that even though he _really_ wanted a good screaming match with her, that it had to wait.

"Fine. We need salt and some kind of paint. Also a blueprint of the building would be good" he said as he turned to the FBI agent, police officer and secretary in the room.

"There's road salt in the store room" Nancy said quietly and Dean nodded.

"Perfect. We need salt at every window and door. What about the paint?"

"There might be some spray can's in lock-up"

"Okay, I'll go check" Sam said, "you three get started with the salt." They nodded and all four walked out the room, leaving just him, Cas and Bela.

"What's going on here?" The woman asked and Dean contemplated ignoring her but decided against it.

"We've got demons coming our way"

"How many?"

"About thirty" Cas answered for him and Bela's eyes widened.

"Take me back" she ordered at Cas "right now. Take me _back_!" But the Trickster just looked at her with boredom.

"You're the reason they're here and in this mess, so you're going to help. And unless you want your contract to end _ahead_ of schedule then you better start soon" he said coldly and Dean could see all the colour drain from the woman's face. He was shocked to hear about her demon deal but decided there was no time.

Dean went to find Sam while Cas and Bela helped to do the salt lines. The brother's used the blueprint to plan exactly where each devil's trap was needed and they both set out to paint them. Dean had just finished his last trap when Cas appeared in the room next to him.

"They're here"

_**(Castiel's Point of View)**_

After the brief onslaught of black smoke with no entries Dean pulled Cas aside. They walked away from the other's and into a back room so they could talk easier.

"Why did you stay?" Dean asked and then hastened to add "I'm glad you did, but I just want to know _why_"

"The same reason as before; you and Sam are interesting… But I'm sure you didn't bring me back here just to ask me that. So what do you need, Dean?" Cas replied and Dean nodded to himself.

"That light thing that you don't want to tell us about… how many can you take out with it?"

Cas thought for a moment about Dean's question. He _could_ easily take out every demon here if they were all in the same room… but that much angel activity would _definitely_ alert some angels. And he just wasn't ready to face them yet.

"It wouldn't be very useful in this situation" he lied to Dean who nodded to himself again.

"Okay. Well in that case I need you to fly Sam and everyone else out of here. I don't want them getting hurt"

"Dean -" Cas started to object but his friend cut him off.

"No, Cas. I wont let my brother and all these innocent people die"

"And I wont leave you alone"

"Then leave behind Bela" Dean joked dryly, but his laugh afterwards was forced and filled with sadness.

"You're _not_ going to die today, Dean" Cas said determinately but before Dean could say anything else there was a loud crash in another room. The hunter and the angel rushed towards the noise only to find Ruby standing in one of the devil's traps after breaking the glass window to get inside. They were the first ones in the room but others followed seconds later.

"How do we kill her?" Hendrickson asked as he aimed a shot gun to the demon.

"We don't" Sam said as he forced the gun to lower, "she's here to help us."

Cas could feel the tension and frustration rolling off of Dean beside him and it was mirrored in himself. Sam let Ruby out of the trap and she walked past all of them and out of the room. Everyone followed her out, Sam last after fixing the salt line.

"There's around thirty out there. So far" Ruby muttered to the room and everybody nodded. Cas couldn't stop glowering at her. "Lilith sent them, in case you're wondering"

"Who's Lilith?" Dean asked and Ruby turned to face Sam.

"You didn't tell Dean? Oh. I'm surprised" she muttered and Cas had a sudden urge to wipe the small smirk off of her face. "There's a big new up and comer. Real pied piper. And she _really_, really wants Sam's intestines on a stick"

"Did you know about this?" Dean asked suddenly, turning to face Cas and he nodded. "Great. Did _no-one_ think to tell _me_ that a demon bitch is gunning for my brother?" Dean practically shouted.

"I figured you already knew" Cas muttered, and it was the truth. He turned to look at Sam and tilted his head at the younger brother. Ruby was now glaring at him; his wards had stopped her from knowing he was more than human but Dean's words had made her look closer and now she saw the warding.

"You must be the Trickster I've heard so much about" she muttered dryly and squared her jaw. He glared back at her and answered coolly.

"I don't think we really have the time for introductions"

"No. I suppose we don't. We'll need the colt" she said, turning back to Sam.

"Got it right here" Dean muttered, taking the gun out of his jeans. "But we haven't got enough bullets for thirty demons"

"Well how many _have_ you got?"

"Ten. We haven't had chance to make more" Sam muttered and Ruby stood up and paced slightly in annoyance.

"Fine. Since I don't see that there's any other _option_, there is one other way I know how to get you out of here alive"

"What's that?"

"I know a spell. It'll vaporise every demon in a one mile radius. Myself included"

"_No_" Cas said forcefully; everyone in the room flinched from the power in his voice and turned to look at him.

"We don't exactly have much of a choice. They do this or they die" Ruby said, icily and stepped close to him in an effort to intimidate him. He felt frustration boil underneath his skin and had to fight the idea of lowering his wards to give her a view of who she was _really _messing with. But, luckily, Sam interrupted their staring match before he could do anything drastic.

"What's the spell?"

"She wants to sacrifice Nancy" Cas said dryly, glowering at the demon in front of him.

"What, are you crazy?" Dean said as he walked closer to them.

"I'm _offering_ a solution" Ruby answered snidely.

"You're offering to kill somebody"

"And what do you think is going to happen to this girl once the demons get in?"

"We're going to protect her, that's what" Hendrickson added. As Dean, Ruby and Hendrickson were arguing Cas noticed that Sam was quiet. He turned to look at the youngest Winchester and ignored the conversation going on around him. Sam looked pale and sad, making Cas realised that Sam would do it. He'd sacrifice Nancy to save the others.

"We're _not_ sacrificing the virgin" Cas said strongly, making Dean very shocked and Ruby turned back to glower at him.

"Oh yeah? Well what's your big idea dumb-ass?"

"I'll do what I've always done" Cas said and materialised his angel blade in his hand. "Fight." Ruby took a scared step backwards as she saw the blade and the room fell silent.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Where'd you _think_?" Cas replied. The demon didn't know he was an angel, but now she could see the angel blade she knew he was strong enough to kill one, which made him too powerful to get on the wrong side of.

"What is it?" Dean asked quietly, a little worried by the tension coming off of Ruby. Neither of then answered for several seconds.

"It kills demons. That's all you need to know" Cas answered and Ruby shook her head, though she still looked visibly scared

"Sam?" Ruby asked, bringing him into the argument. "You know I'm right" There was a few more seconds of silence.

"What the hell is going on?" Dean muttered, "Sam _tell her_"

"It's my decision" Nancy said, having already agreed to doing it while Cas wasn't paying attention.

"_Stop!_ Stop. Nobody kill any virgins" Dean shouted and walked out of the room, pulling his brother along with him. Cas stayed in the silent room with the demon, the thief, the FBI agent, the police officer and the virgin while he waited for the brothers to get back and was relieved when Dean told them about the new plan. It was the best idea that they had.

[] [] []

A few minutes had past since Ruby left when he started to sense Gabriel close by. He scowled and flew to find him. He was on the roof of a building across the road from the police station, looking out at the hoard of demons in front of the building.

"You need to leave"

"That's not going to happen"

"I said I would give you your answers if you left. You're not going to find out a thing if you hurt the Winchesters"

"I wont. Not now that I know they have a guardian angel on their shoulders" Gabriel said with a smirk, "and I never really was going to leave, just stay far enough back that you wouldn't notice me. But with all these demons I figure that you'd need some help. Call it an act of good faith"

Cas took a deep breath in and let it out loudly as he thought. The looked over towards the demons on the ground and knew that he could use all the help he could get to keep these people alive.

"They're not going to like this" he said as he gave in. But before he would let his brother anywhere near the Winchesters he had to tell them what they knew so Gabriel wouldn't say something he was trying to hide. Like his name.

"Are you sure you don't want to be known as Cassy instead? It's got a much better ring to it then _Cas_" Gabriel said with a smile. "I want a code name too. I've been going by Loki for a while now so that's getting a bit boring… how about Spock? I could definitely pass as a Spock. Or maybe Sherlock…"

"Gabriel, we don't have time for this"

"Fine" he said grumpily, "just call me Gabe" the Archangel said and Cas agreed before they flew into the police station together.

Just like he thought, Sam and Dean weren't happy when he showed up in the middle of the room with Gabriel. They instantly recognised him as the Trickster that they had previously faced and Dean demanded to know what was going on.

"This is Gabe. He's one of my brothers and he wants to help"

"We _killed_ him" Sam said and Gabe shook his head, about to say something snarky when Cas answered instead.

"Stakes don't kill us. It's a lie" he never would have said it if it wasn't for the fact that all the real Tricksters had died out long before Gabriel had taken up his witness protection on earth. Both Winchesters looked annoyed at having to work with Gabe, but they weren't going to argue any further. Which, Cas realised too late, is what Gabriel wanted them to do.

"What's the matter Dean-o? You still a bit upset about the Mystery Spot?" Gabriel asked politely and Sam's head instantly shot up to stare at the Archangel; it took a moment for Dean to understand. Gabriel momentarily shifted from the form he was currently in to the man he'd been disguised as when he'd put Sam into the time loop.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me" Dean said as he glared at the Archangel but he was talking to Cas. Sam was trying his hardest not to burst forwards and attack Gabriel. "You expect us to _work_ with that son of a bitch?"

"No. I don't. I didn't bring him here… he followed me. And rather than turn him away I realised that we might need him"

"If it makes you feel any better, I was _only_ going to keep killing Dean until you found out it was me. Then I'd send you into a dream where Dean was dead for good and leave you there until you finally excepted that you couldn't bring him back. Now is that so bad?" Gabriel said and Cas felt like hitting him.

"You're not _helping_, Gabe" Cas said through gritted teeth and Gabriel shrugged.

"Fine. You want help? You're plan sucks. Someone is going to die and it'll probably be her" Gabe said gesturing towards Bela who looked even more out of place than even Nancy did.

"Why _me_?" Bela demanded and Gabriel shrugged again.

"You don't seem to be much of a team player"

"What are you thinking?" Cas asked to interrupt Bela's reply and Gabriel smiled at him.

"They let the demons in, then _we_ lock the doors, send them somewhere safe and play the tape. Simple"

[] [] []

Cas looked around him as the exorcise tape played and saw all the demons pounding at the widows and doors which were being held closed by his and his brother's grace. They weren't going to get out. When the last demon had evacuated it's host and been sent back to hell they retracted their grace back into themselves and looked around at the waking citizens.

"I'll wipe their memories. You go check on everyone" Gabriel said and Cas nodded before flying towards his friends.

"Cas?" Dean asked when he spotted the trench coat wearing angel, "what happened?"

"It went better then I thought it would. Gabe is covering up. It's safe for you all to leave"

"Thanks"

Cas felt Gabriel's presence in the room and turned to see him leaning against a wall. He excused himself and walked up to his brother, knowing that the only reason he was still around was because he was waiting for answers. He gestured that Gabe follow him as he walked out into a different room in the abandoned house they were standing in.

"So little brother. What are you up to?" Gabriel asked as he took out a chocolate bar from his jacket and began to unwrap it.

"I'm trying to stop it" Cas answered.

"Stop what?"

He was trying to stop more than just the apocalypse, he was trying to stop Dean from changing too, and stop Sam from drinking demon blood. He was trying to stop the never ending battle that both the Winchesters were being pushed into. But he couldn't tell Gabriel that.

"You _know_ what"

"Then you're insane. It can't be done. The fight can't be stopped" Gabriel said calmly, as if he was discussing what to have for dinner instead of the end of the world.

"I don't accept that"

"Well it's time to. Trust me, I've tried to find a way to stop it. They're my _brothers_; I didn't want to believe that they had to kill each other. But there's nothing we can do to prevent it"

"So what? You're just going to _give up_?!" Cas shouted at the Archangel's indifference. "Half the world is going to be torched. Billions of people are going to die! They're better then us and you know it, _I_ know it and I've not been here among them _half_ as long as you have. So how can you just let them all die without fighting?!"

"I think I'm going to need to know more about this war" said a voice coming behind Cas and the angel spun around. Dean was standing there.

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**A/N: I've been thinking that Dean had never really died on that Wednesday in Mystery Spot because it was six months later when Sam got him back, yet in Season 4 he had broken the first seal and risen after only **_**4**_** months. So I thought that I'd add my headcannon idea that them six months were just another part of Gabe's tricks. **

** I have another little headcanon about the Mystery Spot episode that I'll add in eventually too.**


	9. Chapter 9 - Long Distance Call

**Sorry, but this is not the chapter Dean gets the truth. I wish it could be but I have big plans for that whole reveal. Also, I may need to put this fic on hold for a couple of weeks because my life is just so hectic right now that I don't have the time to write and the number of chapter I have pre-written are dwindling. I'll definitely still update next Tuesday and I'll mention in that authors note if the fic will be going into hiatus. The updates will _not_ stop completely; I've put way too much effort and planning into this fic to just give it up. Anyway, more info on that in next weeks update.**

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**_Chapter 9: Long Distance Call_**

Castiel stared at his friend in shock, he hadn't heard Dean behind them. He's a celestial being… no-one should be able to sneak up on him. Cas turned to look at Gabriel who shook his head at them and flew away. Great.

"If the war was that bad then why weren't me and Sam brought into this?" Dean continued, incredulously.

"You will be… but you're no good to me if you're in hell"

"So _that's_ why you keep saving my skin?" Dean asked and Cas nodded, "and why you stepped in to take the deal in the first place?" Cas nodded again. "Then why the _fuck_ didn't you just tell us that from the start?!"

"It's not that simple –"

"It's pretty simple" Dean insisted but was met by silence from Cas's side. "Fine. Well, I'm going to need more details" Dean demanded and Cas pondered over what he could tell his friend.

"My brothers… the two eldest, you met one of them in my dream, they're extremely powerful and they believe that it's necessary to fight. But if that happened then the battle would be large and it would destroy half the planet. So, like I've said before, I'm attempting to stop it."

"Why do they need to fight?"

"It's a long story. But… one of them disobeyed our rules so he was cast out and if he comes back then Michael has been ordered to fight him" Cas said, purposefully not mentioning Lucifer's name. "But that was many years ago; our Father has left now and his order is mute. But, in his absence, I found out that my most powerful brothers are planning to _make_ the disobedient return so that Michael can fight him… though they have to wait for a very… _specific_ event to occur before they can do anything." Cas's mind was aching with the effort to give Dean the details he demanded without anything angelic being included.

"What event?" Dean asked and Cas was once again forced to lie.

"I don't know. I only know that, whatever it is, it's very rare and it would be near impossible to make the disobedient return without it happening"

"Right, okay… what's with this 'the disobedient' crap? Are you not aloud to say his name or something…? Is he Voldemort?" Dean said in his usual sarcastic tone that he liked to use when a situation scared him. And, although Cas was much more educated when it came to pop culture references, he still didn't understand that one. He squinted his eyes and slightly cocked his head to the left which made a small smile appear on Dean's lips. "You know… the one who can't be named…" Dean continued before shrugging to himself. "You've _never_ watched Harry Potter"

"No. All the music and films I know are because of what my… partner liked." Cas muttered and paused for a moment, remembering how desperate Dean had been to educate him on his favourite songs and films, but he didn't recognise the name… maybe they just hadn't got around to watching it before everything went to hell… literally. "Is it a film that you like?"

"Erm… I guess. I mean it's not something I'd go out of my way to watch but if it's on the TV then I will" Dean said and Cas nodded, that would make sense as to why he'd never watched it before. "Okay, well. Is there anything me and Sam can do?"

"No, not until I find out more" Cas said and Dean nodded to himself.

Cas didn't want to leave just now but he knew that he couldn't just stick around; he didn't fit into this world, he never had and he probably never would. He could sometimes fool himself into thinking that he belonged but it was just a lie. Once the apocalypse has been stopped he would return to heaven and probably never see Sam or Dean again, so there was no point in getting more attached. With that thought he unfurled his wings and flew away.

**_(Dean's Point of View)_**

Dean looked down at the phone in his hand. Could it have been his Dad? He didn't want to get his hopes up. But, what if it _was_ him? Surely he would be able to find him a way out of the deal. John Winchester was good like that, always able to find the loop holes.

He put the mobile back into his pocket and sat down in the impala for a good minute before he started the engine and drove back to the motel.

The drive only lasted about ten minutes and Dean thought over his options for the entirety of it. He wanted so badly to believe that it was really John. The drive back to the motel was torturously slow. He just wanted to know the truth. Sam wasn't there when he got back and so he grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge and downed it within seconds. He sat mulling over the possibilities for another minute before drinking his second beer, this time a little slower. Dean drained the contents of the bottle when Sam walked into the door. He got up and began to pace the room as he explained about the call.

"You really think it was Dad?!" Sam asked, wearily.

"I don't know, maybe" he replied, because he really didn't have an answer. "Do you think Cas would know?" He asked suddenly as the thought popped into his head. Sam looked in deep thought for a moment longer and then shrugged.

"It's possible. I mean, he seems to know a lot. Maybe… it's worth a shot?" Sam replied slowly and Dean nodded his head. Cas had told them to just _pray_ to him, but what if he was in the middle of something important? What if it had something to do with the war? And they just interrupted him for some damn phone call… he wouldn't exactly be happy. Dean rubbed at his forehead as he felt a headache coming on. Thinking about his Dad was bringing everything back, he was on the verge of tears. Not that he'd talk about it, but he could hear his own voice cracking with the strain of not crying. He didn't think he could handle finding out that it's not really John.

Dean shook his head and threw himself down on the bed opposite his brother.

"Okay. How do we do this?" Dean asked and Sam shrugged again. "Great" he muttered under his breath and closed his eyes, "well, here goes nothing"

Dean closed his eyes and brought the Trickster God to mind, started to picture him. It was something that he tried to avoid doing, but now he didn't really have a choice. He pictured the tall frame covered in the dirty trench coat, the dark messy sex hair, the piercing blue eyes and the gruff voice. Dean felt his body reacting slightly as he thought about Cas, but he shoved them thoughts deep down and locked them into a box.

"Okay, Cas" Dean spoke, keeping the image of the Trickster in mind. "We… erm… we could do with some help here and -"

"Hello Dean" said the gravely voice next to him and Dean jumped a mile. He knew who it was, of course he did; he'd never heard _anyone_ with a voice that deep before. But he still wasn't used to the guy popping up without a sound. Cas was sitting right next to him on his bed with a smirk on his face, looking fairly amused.

Dean pushed down any inappropriate thoughts and got to work, explaining everything. Cas frowned and listened to everything Dean and Sam had to say.

"I'm sorry" he said delicately, "but that isn't your father"

Dean's heart sank and he bit at the inside of his cheek, nodding sullenly. Of course it wasn't, when was there ever anything good to happen to them?

"Do you know what it is?" Sam asked and Cas nodded.

"A Crocata"

**_(Cas's Point of View)_**

Cas stayed around long enough to help the Winchester's locate and kill the Crocata. He enjoyed helping them, it felt like the old days working with Dean and even though he'd not worked with Sam much he'd always respected him as a hunter and considered the younger man a friend.

He was getting a bit restless though, Dean and Sam were still struggling to find a way out of the deal. Cas could easily break it and it looked more and more likely that was going to happen, but he worried about what affects that might have on the timeline. He wasn't from this time which meant anything he did would have more chance of resetting time then if Sam or Dean did it.

Dean lifted his head from where he was putting his bags into the trunk of the impala and looked over to the angel before slowly walking over to Cas's side. They stood side by side for several minutes, neither saying a word. Sam was currently in the motel room and packing away his things.

"I'm sorry that it wasn't your father" Cas repeated quietly.

"It's not your fault, Cas" Dean replied tightly. They went quiet again for a few moments before Dean turned to look at him again. "So, where's your brother? I thought he'd be with you"

"No, I haven't seen him since the police station" Cas said and Dean frowned at him slightly.

"Why won't he help with the war?"

Cas licked his lips, slightly uncomfortable and not quite knowing how to answer all of Dean's questions. It was a lot more difficult to come up with believable answers then he originally thought it would be. Keeping answers close to the truth without revealing too much was becoming exhausting.

"This war is against my own kind, Dean. My own family. I will have to kill them and I've already accepted that, but Gabe hasn't."

Dean looked at Cas sadly and seemed to be about to say something else when Sam rushed out of the motel room. Dean looked at his younger brother for a moment before grabbing his bags and putting them into the boot of the car. Cas was about to leave when Sam called his name.

"Cas… hey, can I, erm… talk to you for a second?"

Castiel and Dean both turned to look at the taller, floppy haired Winchester. The angel nodded and followed Sam's lead back into the motel room, not quite sure what to expect. Sam sat down at the table next to his laptop, scanned the page and turned it around for Cas to see. It was an online article from a newspaper. He read the page in less than a second and raised curious eyes to meet Sam's.

"I saw this yesterday and it has a lot of similarities to Doc Benton… he was this guy who found-"

"I know who he is" Cas interrupted, remembering him from the books and having a growing idea of where this conversation was heading. "In theory it would be a loop hole in Dean's contract…" he said and Sam smiled brightly so Cas rushed to continue before the youngest brother got his hopes up, "_however_… I don't believe you should pursue it. Benton's formula should never have been created. It's pure science, blocking receptors for specific enzymes but some of them are used in brain activities and without them present… If Dean were to take the formula then it would corrupt his mind." Sam's face had dropped during the explanation, but that wasn't enough for Cas. He _needed_ confirmation that Sam wouldn't go this route because the more he thought about it, the more it worried him. Dean had such a good heart and soul… even back in 2014 when he'd become closed off and angry. The thought of such an innocent plan being able to corrupt him into a monster was simply terrifying. Cas still loved Dean greatly and he'd never let anything like that happen to him again. "You can't go after Benton, Sam. The formula would destroy him"

Sam looked a little scared himself of what could have happened to Dean if he'd gone through with the plan and nodded to the angel.

"Good… I'll take the case. You should work on trying to break the contract" Cas said and then turned invisible.

Sam threw glances around the room at his sudden disappearance and waited a few seconds before packing up the rest of his things and leaving the room. He threw this laptop bag onto the back seat as he got into the car at the same time that Cas flew inside of it. He knew he should leave now and stop Benton but he needed to make sure that Sam wasn't going to do anything stupid just yet. Benton was, after all, a simple case. He knew where the man was hiding and that he wouldn't kill again for several days, so the angel had a little while left to spare.

"What was that about?" Dean asked as he slowly pulled away from the motel.

"I asked Cas about a case and he took it. Said we should work on breaking your contract"

"So… he just disappeared?"

"Pretty much"

"Right…" there was a momentary pause where Dean seemed in deep thought, Cas just barely resisted looking into his thoughts when the eldest Winchester let out a heavy breath and nodded to himself. "So… we going Bobby's?"


	10. Chapter 10 - No Rest for the Wicked

**So this will be my last update for a few weeks. This fic is going onto a temporary hiatus (it _will_ only be temporary). With the exception of any unsuspected events, I should be back to updating by the end of next month (August - for anyone who's not sure when this chapter was posted). But, if something else happens that continues to make my life too hectic to give me time to write, I will definitely post Chapter 11 before September and I'll just have to play it by ear as to when my following updates will be.**

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**_Chapter 10: No Rest for the Wicked_**

Dean was about to hit the forty-eight hour mark when Castiel decided to check on him. Like many of the angel's check-ups, Dean wouldn't know he was there; he showed up invisibly and watched as both brothers sat with Bobby and a table full of books as the night went on. Dean passed out around two in the morning and Bobby went to bed not long later, knowing there was nothing they could do without their right minds on. Sam, however, refused to go to sleep. Not without a plan. Not without his brother saved. Cas somewhat admired that in the Winchester brothers, their dedication to each other… but right now it was rather stupid. Cas pressed his palm to Sam's head and forced sleep to take hold of him. He would be much more clear-headed after a few hours.

Cas took another look at the eldest Winchester and sighed loudly… Dean had once again given up hope in being saved. Knowing him as well as he did, Dean would probably have one last minute desperate plan, and if that didn't work then he'd accept his death. Cas stayed through the night to watch over the Winchesters. There was a strange longing that took over him. He'd never felt this particular type of longing before God had revived him, but now he felt it several times a day. He was lonely. He longed to have the camaraderie he felt over the past years in the camp. He hadn't ever been alone over those years. There was always a friend close by who he could converse with. Sure, none of them had ever really understood him, except from Dean that is, but he had been welcomed nonetheless. But now he was just a fallen angel, torn from heaven and left in the cold by his family simply because he couldn't explain to them, to _him_, who he really was.

Not having to sleep coupled with no-one to talk to meant that Cas was always inside his own head. His mind wandered off to the sadness of the previous days. After tracking and eradicating Benton, he had remembered about Bela's contract and gone to visit her. He had expected her to be rushing to complete her deal that would ensure her freedom from hell. However, she had been drinking by herself at an all day bar. Bela didn't even bat an eye lash when Castiel appeared next to her and she went into a drunken rant. She explained the contract that a demon named Crowley had offered her. Cas just barely remembered the name from the books and inwardly cursed for ever forgetting something so crucial. Bela explained in an inebriated slur how Cas taking the colt back before she could hand it off had created a 'part 2' for the deal… she had to kill Sam. Cas knew that it was one of the demon's lies and it just furthered his assumption that they would have never let Bela out of her contract.

They sat in silence as midnight rolled closer and he expected her to beg and plead for his help and she did at exactly eleven fifty-seven… but it hadn't been what he was expecting. He remembered her tear guttered words as they escaped her when she beseeched him to end it. To kill her before the hellhounds ripped her to shreds.

And he agreed.

No-one should have to die that way. And in that moment he'd seen Bela as who she really was; a tired and abused girl who'd been manipulated by a demon in her time of need. She was scared, tired and eternally haunted by her past. Chuck's books had been misleading. Castiel wished that he could end Bela's contract for her but it wasn't in his power. So, instead, he did for her the only thing that he could.

Using his own power to ease Bela's suffering had made him feel… broken again. And he longed for the comfort of his friend's and family that he'd left behind.

[] [] []

When Dean woke up around half six in the morning, Cas saw the instant change in the man. The hallucinations had started, which meant that he was probably piercing the veil too. Dean wandered out of the living room and into the kitchen to grab a beer and Cas followed. There was a momentary pause from the human as he waited with the bottle to his lips.

"Okay…" Dean muttered quietly to the room, "I can pretty much guarantee that I'm going insane now but, erm… Cas, are you... _here_?" Dean continued as he cast looks around the kitchen. Castiel bit his lip. Dean could sense him now, which meant if he showed himself then Dean would be able to _see_ him.

"Yes" Cas said solemnly as he made himself visible.

Dean's eyes went wide. His mouth hung open as he gawked at the angel and Cas knew what he was seeing. His wings.

**_(Dean's Point of View)_**

When Dean woke up from his dreamless sleep his head began to pound. He opened his eyes just to see the room spinning and twisting in a way that made him mildly sick. Then he cast his gaze over to his sleeping brother and almost pulled out the colt; Sam's face was twisted, evil and barely recognisable. He managed to restrain himself from attacking the creature that paraded as his brother when he remembered the information on demon deals… a couple of books had talked about hallucinations. Dean took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, everything was back to normal.

He got up from where he had slept at the table and moved quietly into the kitchen for a beer… though he had a feeling he'd be needing something _much_ stronger. That's when he felt it. The itch on the back of his neck that told him he was being watched, he turned to his brother to see that he was still fast asleep at the table. The itch only got stronger as the seconds went on and then it got… familiar? It felt like Cas. It was impossible to describe, but somehow Dean _knew_ that Cas was in the room. He brought the brown-tinted glass bottle down from where it hovered at his lips and spoke into the, perceivably, empty room. He felt idiotic as the words left his mouth and seconds dragged on. He was about to just shrug it off when a recognizable deep voice sounded in the room.

"Yes" was the only word that the Trickster said and when Dean saw him appear his heart almost stopped beating.

The first thing Dean noticed were the wings. They were large enough that if they were fully extended then Bobby's kitchen would be no-where near big enough for them. They were white. _Very_ white. They glowed slightly and it was… incredible. It took a moment for Dean's attention to be pulled from the wings and to the rest of Castiel. He was filled with… light. It was different though, tangible, like a fog that filled him to his core. It was anchored to his body but occasional wisps escaped and flowed outside before being pulled back into him.

"Wow" Dean heard himself breath out and Cas rolled his eyes.

"They're wings, Dean… you may have heard of them" he muttered sarcastically but Dean could make out a slight blush colouring his cheeks and saw the way his wings quivered at the attention.

"Yeah, I… _why_ do you have wings?"

"How do you _think_ I move around?" He snipped back but Dean couldn't care less about the snarky attitude, he was too enthralled by the white shine to give a damn.

"You've never had wings before"

"No… you've just never been able to see them before" Cas said as he turned from the kitchen and headed back into the living room. He was still talking quietly for Sam's sake but Dean had completely forgotten about that and his next words were loud enough to wake his snoozing brother.

"Why can I see them now then?"

"Because you're piercing the veil"

"That doesn't sound too good…" Sam piped up, looking to his brother to make sure he was alright. That's when he noticed the completely mystified look on his face. "What happened?"

"Cas has wings"

Sam shot a look at the Trickster, frowned and then returned to staring at his brother.

"I don't see anything"

"You wouldn't" Cas said with a sigh and sat down on the sofa. Dean's eyes widened even more as the white feathers sank and disappeared into the fabric. "Humans senses are too dull to see them without it damaging you… Dean is the exception because he's piercing the veil."

"And what's that _mean_ exactly?" Sam asked as he sat up taller and wiped at his face, a little bit annoyed at himself for falling asleep.

"It means…" Cas took a moment to think about how to explain this and he met Dean's eyes. "It means that you can see what's behind the visage. You can see our true forms. Demons, shapeshifters, tricksters… you can see what we really look like"

"Well… that could come in handy" Sam muttered, "but _why_?"

Cas shrugged, "In Dean's case it's because his contract is coming to an end. It's there for the same reasons that the hallucinations are; to scare you. It doesn't tend to happen if it's not caused by a contract."

"_Hallucinations_?!" Sam asked and stared at Dean who was finally able to remove his eyes from Cas's wings to shrug at his younger brother. There was a noise on the stairs and a few seconds later Bobby walked into the room.

"Cas… you here to help out or…?" Bobby let the question run off and the trickster just nodded. "Great… well, would you know anything about tracking Demons? I was thinking of taking a few out and seeing what they could tell us about contracts that we don't already know."

"Quite a lot actually. But that won't be needed" Cas replied and Dean turned around from where he was looking at his surrogate father to see the trickster get to his feet and walk over to him. The white light collected in the palm of his hand as he raised it to Dean's head.

Dean wasn't sure why he didn't move. He'd seen Cas burn monsters from the inside by doing nothing more than placing his palm on their head… and now the trickster was doing it to him… but he didn't try to get away. He didn't even flinch. He saw Sam quickly raise to his feet and Bobby reach for a gun and he heard them yelling but he couldn't make out words. Every noise faded into the background and the white light seeped out of Cas's hand and into him, covering his vision.

It barely lasted a few seconds before Cas was pulling back and everything returned to normal. Dean's head span and throbbed. He opened his eyes, which he must have closed to try and block out the bright light, and looked at the room. Cas was standing _very_ close to him, Sam wasn't far behind the trickster, Bobby had a shotgun aimed and ready to shoot but they were all staring at Dean.

"What?" Dean croaked as he looked at all of them individually, when he looked back at Cas he realised something and frowned. Dean cleared his throat before speaking. "Where've your wings gone?"

But before Cas could answer Bobby returned to pointing the gun at the trickster and Sam asked a different question.

"What did you just do to him?"

"I cancelled the contract" Cas replied, answering both their questions. The entire room stilled again. Sam was the first to move, he rushed past the trickster and pulled Dean in for a hug.

"Hey… Sam. Now I'm not going to hell I might need my lungs… seriously, I can't breathe" Dean said and Sam pulled back with a grin on his face. Dean looked back at the rest of the room and saw that Bobby had lowered his gun but was still staring, suspiciously, at the Demi-God.

**_(Cas's Point of View)_**

Cas watched as Dean and Sam embraced and smiled, everything was going to be okay. Bobby eventually lowered the shotgun but Cas noticed that he never put it down and never put the safety back on. He knew there were questions as to what Cas wanted spinning around the man's head but Cas pretended to be oblivious.

"Why was he glowing?" Bobby asked which caught Dean's attention.

"Wait, what? I was glowing?" Dean asked and looked between Sam and Bobby, "is this why you two were staring at me like I'd grown a second head?"

Sam shrugged, which was the only confirmation, and then turned to look at Cas, waiting for an answer just like Bobby was.

"I had to cleanse your soul of the contract" Cas replied. He knew it wasn't much of an answer but it'd have to do. The glow hadn't been bright, only a faint light under Dean's skin from where his grace had healed away any claim he'd had on it. In truth it had shocked Castiel just as much as it had the two humans in the room, it shouldn't have happened but after a little thought the reason behind it was obvious. Grace-to-grace, or in this case soul-to-grace, contact was popular among angels with their lovers. Cas was in love with Dean, he had been for a long time and his grace was rejoicing at being able to connect with his love's soul. But he wasn't about to tell that to any of the humans in this room.

Bobby narrowed his eyes at Cas for a moment before putting the gun down, apparently appeased with the answer. Talk between the humans soon mentioned a celebratory drink and Cas decided it was time to leave. He stepped back and was ready to fly away when Dean turned to look at him.

"Cas… can we talk for a second?"

The angel stared for a moment and then nodded, he followed as Dean walked out of Bobby's house and onto the front porch.

"So, erm… thanks" Dean said and Cas smiled. "Seriously, I don't know if we could have done it without you… I actually don't know why you did do it. I mean I'm really glad that you did but there has to be better hunters out there who could help you and would be less hassle."

"You greatly underestimate your own self worth Dean." Cas replied after letting his friend talk out his worries, "you and your family are the best hunters that I've met… plus you're amusing, it would be a shame if you died," he finished with a smile and Dean huffed a laugh.

"Well in that case… you gonna come inside? Have a drink with us?" Dean asked and Cas nodded happily.

**_(Ruby's Point of View)_**

Ruby waited near Bobby's house, it was now less then twenty hours before Dean's deal would end… so why had they not tried summoning her yet? She'd done everything perfectly. She'd gotten Sam to trust her. She'd gotten him to believe she had the answer for any situation. So surely he should be asking for her help by now.

The demon waited a few more hours and by the time the sun was in the sky she got anxious. This could only mean that they already had a plan. Ruby reluctantly left to make a call. She dragged the nearest person into an alley way and drained his blood into a ritual bowl. Ruby wasn't looking forward to what Lilith had to say.

As she thought, the demon was livid that Ruby hadn't been able to point Sam into the course of action they needed and on top of that was she apparently wasn't able to keep Sam away from anything that could help break Dean's deal. Ruby's fear accelerated. She had fucked up big. One mistake was enough for Lilith to throw her into the pit and so she was done for. If she didn't find a way to make the plan work then she'd be Lilith's new chew toy.

Lilith demanded answers and if there is one thing Ruby was good at, it's thinking on her feet.

[] [] []

Ruby walked into the cul-de-sac that was currently overflowing with demons. She tensed when she felt several appear behind her. Lilith was wearing a young blond child with blood soaking her dress. If Ruby's plan didn't impress her then she was in for hell… literally.

"I'm in the middle of my vacation… this had _better_ be good" said the sickly sweet voice and Ruby smiled nervously.

"I rang Sam Winchester after we talked and asked about Dean's deal… I've gotten him to think as me as a friend, just as you suggested. He told me that the trickster broke the contract yesterday morning"

"So, let me see if I've got this right…" the demonic child began, "a year ago I gave you instructions to alienate the Winchester brothers, influence Sam into tapping into the dormant demon blood, prevent Dean from escaping his deal and find out what this trickster wants with the Winchesters and keep him away from them if his agenda impedes our own… and you have managed to fail in _every single one_ of these tasks?" Lilith snarled at the younger demon as she finished and waited for a response.

"I have a plan to fix this. It's guaranteed to get Dean into hell and Sam away from that trickster" Ruby answered quietly and continued to explain after noticing she had Lilith's attention. "I know that it's never been attempted before, but, technically speaking, it's possible to force a righteous soul into hell _without _a contract…"

Ruby continued to tell Lilith of her plan, every minor detail she had been able to think of in the last few hours and when she had finish the oldest demon gave her approval along with all the resources she needed.

**_(Cas's Point of View)_**

It's was almost midnight. Almost time that Dean's contract would be coming to an end if Cas hadn't already cancelled it. The humans had been celebrating with alcohol and some much needed sleep, but Cas was still on edge. None of them knew the truth yet and Cas figured that there was no rush in telling them so he would let them relax for a few days before mentioning anything to do with angels and an oncoming apocalypse.

However, even if he was letting them rest, Cas knew that he couldn't do the same. He wasn't naïve enough to think the demons would just _give up_ now that Dean was out of his contract.

At the moment, Bobby, Sam and Dean were all fast asleep as Cas watched over them invisibly. It was close to forty-one hours ago that Cas had cancelled the contract and he was still waiting for time to snap back on itself, but so far everything had been okay.

Cas had stayed with the Winchesters and Bobby for several hours and helped them to celebrate, then he had decided that they would probably prefer him not being there. As much as it pained him to admit it, he just wasn't part of this family anymore… hopefully that would change soon, but for now he was just an outsider invading in on their family time. After coming to that conclusion and saying his goodbyes, it felt _wrong_ to turn himself invisible instead of leaving. But he had to be there in case something were to happen.

It was exactly two minutes to midnight when his sensors picked up demons on the outskirt of town. _Seven_ demons.

Cas had to admit that it was a lot of demons for just one angel to fight. But he knew that he could take them, his fighting skills had improve exponentially over the last several years of being human and now he had more power then ever. And anyway, this was why he was still there, to intercept any trouble before it got to his friends.

He took the first two demons out with a surprise attack, appearing behind them and using his grace to burn the evil from their vessels. And then there were only five. He barely had the time it took for the bodies to drop to the ground at his feet before the first one attacked him. Cas dodged the advance and swung at him with his angel blade, slicing through his neck and killing the demon inside. The remaining four demons were more organised in their fighting and worked as a group. They got in a few good shots but nothing they could do would be able to kill him, not without an angel blade. This made him confident… cocky. He'd taken down another one by the time the pain started.

It wasn't _his_ pain and it didn't _physically_ hurt him but he knew what was happening and it made him freeze. The demons took advantage of his momentary mind block and tackled him to the ground before laying punch after punch on him. He couldn't feel any of that pain either, his vessel was getting damaged but he was uninjured.

Cas pushed the demons off him and burnt one of them clean from their body as he heard Dean's scream for help in prayer form as his chest was being torn to shreds. He wanted to go to his friend and help out… but he couldn't without leading the demons to him which would mean more for the Winchesters to fight against. He felt a claw tear across Sam's shoulder. Cas slashed out at the remaining two demons and caught one on the chest, but it wasn't deep enough to kill it. They kept coming at him and Cas got more and more desperate to get away, his attacks becoming sloppy from all the fear building inside him.

He managed a lucky shot and was able to force his angel blade into the chest of one demon and got ready to jump at the last one when he felt cold settle in his veins. He knew the sensation that was making him feel sick to his stomach, Gabriel's antics had forced him to feel it so many times. The demon attacked him and Cas once again fell to the floor, but this time he used it to his advantage and drove the angel blade straight through the man's stomach. Once he pushed the empty vessel off himself he flew away, back to Bobby's.

The first thing he noticed when he entered the house was the hellhound lying dead in the living room. Then he saw the blood. Dean's blood. A big pool of it in the exact place on the floor that Dean had been sleep not ten minutes ago. There was no body. Instead there was bloodied paw prints and a large smear of blood left behind as a hound had dragged Dean's lifeless corpse away. Cas felt the emotions well up inside of him and he was overcome with an urge to drop to the floor and cry over the man he loves, but he had to hide that away. The sooner he figured out what happened, the sooner he could bring Dean back. All of that happened in a second. In the next second he realised that he had never once sensed the hellhounds' presence near either of the Winchesters which meant they had been heavily warded. The demons had been a trap to lore him away from Dean so the hellhounds could kill him. And he'd fallen for it.

Cas's ears picked up a conversation happening in the room and he realised that so far he hadn't even moved his eyes away from blood on the floor. He heard Ruby's voice and his head snapped to the side to glare at the demon who he was sure was behind Dean's death.

"I'm so sorry, Sam… I wanted to believe as much as you did that his contract was over… I didn't want you to have to be alone… I shouldn't have kept quiet about my worries when you said he cancelled it… I shouldn't have… I thought I could interfere if he pulled anything… I thought… I'm sorry you had to see that…" the blonde demon rambled, her voice filled with fake sadness as she wrapped a cloth around Sam's injured shoulder as he cried silently. Her knife was lying on the ground next to her, covered in hellhound blood.

Cas growled at her; she was blaming _him_. She helped to kill Dean and now she was blaming him. Anger and sadness fuelled him as Cas strode towards her. Ruby spun around to defend herself once she realised that Cas was in the room but he drove his blade into her chest before she'd even fully turned. Sam jumped at him. He'd believed every word that the demon bitch had spurted out. Cas had to move the blade quickly out of Sam's way before the Winchester impaled himself on it. He pushed his hand onto Sam head and forced him to sleep. The Winchester collapsed to the ground. Cas stood stock still as the events of the last ten minutes finally started to settle in on him, his hand shook as he reached down to Sam and healed his injured shoulder. He looked around for any sign of Bobby Singer and saw him lying dead in the kitchen, claw marks on his neck, Cas took another few seconds to heal him before flying away.

[] [] []

After days of searching for either Lilith or Dean's body, Cas came to the realisation that he wasn't going to find either. Lilith was strong and the most heavily warded demon. She had to be… couldn't have just anyone being able to find and kill her before the last seal could be broken.

And as for Dean… Cas wasn't even sure if his body was out there.

Cas's connection with Dean… the thing that allowed him to find his hunter_, _was for his soul, the body was nothing more than an empty vessel. There was a line between soul and vessel just like there was between angel and vessel. But with the body missing… it was near impossible to bring Dean back without going into hell to get him.

So that's what Castiel did.

[] [] []

**A.N: As far as I can remember the show doesn't actually say if Cas can or can't see hellhounds but I thought, well if he couldn't before then he can now because he's more powerful. Also, I figured that, since Crowley forced Bobby's soul into hell but no demon had done it for getting a righteous man, Crowley was probably the first one to do it.**

**Like I said at the beginning of this chapter, this will be my last post for several weeks but I promise that this fic won't be stopped completely and updates should start back up again before the end of next month. I am really sorry for where I left this before going on my hiatus. I didn't realise until today which chapter it was that I was leaving you hanging on... sorry.**

**Anyone who wants to contact me while this is on hiatus can do so via my instagram account (pieprincess_andthe_fallenangel), if you have any questions about my fic and future updates then you can ask me on there.**


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